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The hearing for a former Saskatoon police officer fired because of a friendship with a Hells Angels associate resumed in Saskatoon on Monday for final arguments.
Sgt. Robbie Taylor was dismissed earlier this year in March and is fighting to get his job back by appealing the decision at an independent hearing.
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In her final argument, Saskatoon Police Service (SPS) counsel Ashley Smith told Hearing Officer Ronni Nordal that Taylor was dismissed because his “undesirable association” with someone close to the Hells Angels made him an unsuitable police officer. It wasn’t because of incompetence or poor work performance.
That point was made after the testimonies of two witnesses earlier in the day, called by Taylor’s lawyers, who shared how the former officer helped them overcome drug addictions.
Both recalled how Taylor treated them as human beings. One of the two spoke about his struggles with homelessness in addition to addiction, and how Taylor once bought him McDonald’s because he was so hungry.
That witness said being viewed as a person by someone within the SPS played a huge role in his eventual sobriety.
Further in her argument, Smith said the friendship in question is a very close one, with Taylor previously describing the person, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, as a “little brother.”
She told Nordal that despite knowing the depth of his friend’s involvement with the Hells Angels, Taylor didn’t see anything wrong with maintaining a close friendship.
He has a “pattern of minimizing and avoiding the problematic nature” of his friendship, she said about the former officer.
With police officers expected to display characteristics that build and maintain public trust both on and off duty, Smith said people’s opinions on the entire force can change if they think even one officer doesn’t have integrity.
She brought up multiple instances where, according to Smith, Taylor used his position to benefit his friend. That included trying to get the Hells Angels associate out of traffic tickets in 2023, writing a him a reference for a pardon application on SPS letterhead in 2024, and accepting expensive gifts.
It also wasn’t as if Taylor didn’t know the problematic nature of the Hells Angels, she said. Smith said Taylor was an officer for more than 20 years at the time of his dismissal and he had more training on organized motorcycle gangs, Hells Angels, and drug trafficking than most SPS officers.
Although Taylor said he’s willing to end the friendship if that means he gets his job back, Smith said that “shows a complete and utter lack of judgement” because of his extensive knowledge and training.
According to Smith, Taylor’s actions aren’t remediable but the former officer’s counsel said otherwise in a final argument.
One of his lawyers, Brian Pfefferle, said the hearing is about what people want from their police service.
He said Taylor’s friend, who has a criminal past, was someone who’d had really negative experiences with law enforcement as a young person, causing them to be scared of and hate police officers, but Taylor was able to change that.
According to Pfefferle, it was Taylor’s compassion which cost him his job because he chose to associate with modern day “lepers.”
“There’s no playbook to deal with at-risk people,” Pfefferle said, adding how determining an officer is unsuitable for the job is meant for situations where there’s a deficit in character. But, he said that isn’t the case with Taylor.
“When we look at cases where an officer is deemed unsuitable, they have a history of dishonesty. They have a history of sometimes blatant fabrication of information. Sometimes it’ll be an act that’s so egregious that makes them unfit,” Pfefferle said, but none of these apply to Taylor.
Pfefferle said Taylor’s dismissal demonstrates a lack of understanding by the SPS and the people who need remediation are those responsible for the firing, not Taylor. He said the measure of a good officer isn’t in how rigidly they enforce labels or manuals, it’s in their capacity to show compassion.
The former officer’s friendship with a Hells Angels associate is “a good faith friendship that other people disagree with,” Pfefferle said, and so because of that he’s willing to give it up.
He finished his closing argument by saying that Taylor should be reinstated with some advantages, like back pay to the tune of $250,000.
But regardless of the outcome, Pfefferle said there is no winning for Taylor because his “reputation has been tarnished.”
Nordal said she’d like to issue her decision on the matter in two months.
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