A veteran Vancouver police officer has won a resounding victory in B.C. Supreme Court this week against the police complaint commissioner. 

Sgt. Ajmer Sandhu has been with the VPD since 1994.

According to the decision by Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson, a Crown counsel with the B.C. Prosecution Service filed a complaint against an unnamed VPD constable in 2018. This constable was off-duty when the incident allegedly occurred at the Surrey courthouse.

"The complaint alleged that the constable had attempted to intimidate her during a break in the trial of a criminal charge that she was prosecuting against a member of the petitioner’s family," Hinkson wrote. "The complaint alleged that the petitioner [Sandhu] was present while the intimidation attempt was made."

The complainant asked for an external police agency to conduct an investigation of the constable but not Sandhu.

That led the police complaint commissioner to retain then Central Saanich Police Service chief Les Sylven as the discipline authority. RCMP officer J.B. (Brian) Macdonald was the investigating officer under the Police Act.

Sylven subsequently initiated an investigation of Sandhu based on the VPD sergeant's responses during the investigation of the VPD constable.

Sandhu argued in court that Sylven did not have the authority to launch a probe of him under the Police Act and therefore his decision could not be permitted to stand.

The police complaint commissioner conceded that while Sylven did not have the power to launch a complaint and an investigation of Sandhu, this should be seen as "benign procedural flaw" rather than an error of "fundamental jurisdiction".

Moreover, the police complaint commissioner argued that Sandhu "declined to raise any procedural concerns when asked to do so out the outset" of a hearing into the matter.

Hinkson rejected the police complaint commissioner's arguments, granting Sandhu's application for a court order quashing several of Sylven's decisions. This included Sylven's order to drop Sandhu's rank from sergeant to first-class constable.

"In this case, the petitioner argues that the Commissioner’s gatekeeping function was usurped, and Chief Constable Sylven assumed a power that could not even be lawfully delegated to him," Hinkson wrote. "Doing so fundamentally re-cast the process under the Act and removed the 'executive' or 'prosecutorial' function of the Commissioner. It also impermissibly combined the roles of complainant and adjudicator." 

Sylven emailed notice of reassignment to VPD

According to Hinkson's ruling, Sandhu provided one written duty report and participated in two interviews during the initial investigation of the constable.

Sylven rejected MacDonald's final investigation report and directed him to undertake further investigation into the actions and conduct of Sandhu.

In his role as the discipline authority, Sylven also emailed a notice of reassignment on December 4, 2018, to Chief Adam Palmer and Deputy Chief Steve Rai of the Vancouver Police Department.

"This Notice of Reassignment required that the petitioner be reassigned to duties within the VPD that did not require interaction with the public or the collection of evidence," Hinkson wrote. "As a result, the petitioner was, and remains, reassigned to duties without public interaction or collection of evidence."

On December 6, 2018, two days after the notice of reassignment was sent, MacDonald issued a notice of complaint and initiation of investigation to Sandhu. This investigation, ordered by Sylven, listed four allegations, all based on evidence in MacDonald's initial "final investigation report".

Sandhu then underwent a third interview. And following a second final investigation report, Sylven found that on the balance of probabilities, three acts of "deceit" appeared to be substantiated in connection with Sandhu's responses to queries from the RCMP officer.

A hearing was held on November 6, 2019, where Sandhu was represented by a lawyer. In a notice of decision issued on February 13, 2020, Sylven concluded that three of the allegations were "proven" against Sandhu.  

"The constable was ordered to have a temporary reduction in rank from First Class to Second Class Constable for a period of nine months," Hinkson wrote. "The petitioner [Sandhu] was ordered to have a reduction in rank from Sergeant to First Class Constable, with no ability to compete for promotion for five months."

Sandhu later asked the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner to hold a public hearing to review these findings. The police complaints commissioner refused this application.

Instead, the police complaints commissioner retained former Provincial Court chief judge Carol Baird Ellan to conduct a review of the record on December 14, 2020. Sandhu sought a stay on that review, which Hinkson granted following a hearing on November 23, 2020.

Former prosecutor Stan Lowe was the B.C.'s police complaint commissioner when Sylven was retained as the discipline authority. On February 14, 2019, the legislature appointed Lowe's successor, Clayton Pecknold, to this position.

Based on this timeline, Pecknold, therefore, made the decision to refuse Sandhu's application for a public hearing.

Sylven retired as chief of the Central Saanich Police Service in 2020. After working for Victoria police, he was hired as a deputy chief of the Central Saanich Police Service in 2011.

Coincidentally, the current police complaints commissioner, Pecknold, is also a former deputy chief of the Central Saanich Police Service. He left that position in 2007 to become chief of the Port Moody Police Department.