Regina lawyer thinks police oversight should go further

This week, the Saskatchewan government introduced legislation that would create a Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) to oversee police, but a Regina lawyer believes the changes don’t go far enough.

Currently, when someone is hurt or killed while in police custody, it’s another police service that investigates. But in this case the SIRT, under the auspices of the Public Complaints Commission, would be brought in to investigate.

Dan LeBlanc believes this is a good step toward police oversight, if only a small one.

“I think it’s a bit of a concession package to a lot of calls to justice that have been issued over the last several years in Saskatchewan, including notably on the Colten Boushie and the Rocky Lonechild cases,” said LeBlanc.

“I think what it acknowledges is there’s something inherently suspicious about police forces investigating themselves or police investigating other police.”

LeBlanc is representing Lonechild in a lawsuit over police misconduct. Lonechild was arrested in December of 2019 and alleged excessive force when an officer performed several knee strikes on Lonechild while he was on the ground. The Public Complaints Commission disagreed.

The government is calling it a “civilian-led,” independent team. The executive director will be someone with experience in the law and possibly around police work, but Justice Minister Gord Wyant said the investigators will be people with police investigative experience like retired officers.

LeBlanc said many advocates believe the problems that lead to police abuse of force are systemic ones, not individual ones, so having others from police work investigating doesn’t help.

“It’s a move in the right direction, certainly, but not far enough at all to address many of the very serious complaints that people have raised in recent years,” said LeBlanc.

LeBlanc believes the investigators should be civilians.

When asked about hiring retired police, Wyant said these kind of investigations would require the experience those former officers have and training others to do the work would be very expensive.

LeBlanc disagrees, saying these kinds of investigations aren’t so much about technical and legal analysis, but more about what he calls “common-sense ethics.”

“Which is, ‘Should public employees like police get to treat people in this particular way?’ ” explained LeBlanc.

“You don’t need expertise, you just need people who can look at that from a world view which accepts the humanity of Indigenous people and says, ‘Is that good or bad?’ ”

To that end, LeBlanc believes with the way the team is currently proposed, a complaint from Lonechild wouldn’t have come out another way.

Wyant said he wouldn’t want to see an officer retired from a particular service having a part in any investigation of that service. He also said he hasn’t seen concerns expressed in other parts of the country with this kind of model.

LeBlanc is also critical that the team won’t be the one to recommend charges. A report will be produced and sent to the Attorney General and the minister’s office, which will then decide if charges are warranted. The report could also be sent to the chief of that police service for any internal investigation.

LeBlanc isn’t aware of any other provinces that have a full civilian model for police oversight, but said Saskatchewan could and should be a leader on this front.

“And there’s no reason we couldn’t. I think particularly given some of the very deep, underlying racism that’s been exposed in the response to the Colten Boushie case, I think (that) ought to create sort of a fire under the Saskatchewan government to take very seriously what police accountability looks like,” said LeBlanc.

Last year, the province had proposed other changes to oversight but has now decided to go in this direction instead.

“After looking and seeing what’s really happening across the country, talking to police officers, talking to police chiefs, we decided going for an independent model like the one that we are proposing — consistent with what’s happening across the country with other provinces — was the right way to go to ensure that the public has the confidence in the police services and the work that they’re doing when it comes to these serious incidents,” explained Wyant.

Wyant said the government will keep monitoring developments and watch what happens in other provinces.

“We’re going to keep a very close eye on this because ensuring that the public is comfortable with the independence of this is really the key, because if you don’t have an independent investigation there’s very little need to have an independent investigation unit,” said Wyant.

A committee has been put together to find the executive director for the team and, once found, that director will go ahead with hiring investigators.

The team will also be required to appoint a community liaison for any case that involves an Indigenous or Metis person. That person will help co-ordinate with family and advise investigators on any cultural interactions.