Three B.C. RCMP members seek recusal of conduct board over ‘disparaging’ email

SURREY, B.C. — Three RCMP officers stationed in Coquitlam, B.C., who face possible dismissal over their participation in allegedly racist and derogatory group chats want a code of conduct board panel replaced over an email referring to them as the “three amigos.”

At an RCMP code of conduct hearing that began in Surrey, B.C., Monday, a lawyer for constables Ian Solven, Philip Dick and Mersad Mesbah said they want the three panel members to recuse themselves for using the Spanish term for friends in a “disparaging” way.

Wes Dutcher-Walls told the panel that defence lawyers had obtained a screen shot of the email, and claimed the conduct board has shown “a consistent pattern of skepticism, disparagement (and) dismissiveness” toward the three officers and their lawyers.

Solven, Dick and Mesbah face allegations of workplace harassment and discreditable conduct for comments made in private group chats on their personal cellphones, and on police data terminals.

A lawyer for the RCMP conduct authority said the term “amigos” was used by the officers themselves in their communications over the police force’s mobile data terminals.

The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday when arguments will be made for and against having the panel members recuse themselves.

Chats between the officers on their personal cellphones over encrypted messaging applications WhatsApp and Signal, and on internal RCMP communications terminals, came under investigation when a fellow officer complained about the “atrocious” nature of the discussions.

The officer, Const. Sam Sodhi, blew the whistle on the chats in May 2021, and told a professional standards investigator that he was told he needed to be part of the group chat for “operational purposes.”

A search warrant application details comments made in the chats by the three officers, including homophobic and racist remarks about “Tasering unarmed black people,” and insults towards women, including a victim of sexual assault.

The officers had sought to exclude evidence obtained from their private phones claiming its use was against their Charter rights, but the conduct board rejected the claim last June.

Dutcher-Walls said Monday that there are “serious concerns” that the board’s use of the “disparaging term” indicates its decisions are “predetermined,” telling one of the panel members that she began shaking her head as he spoke about privilege and disclosure issues.

“Everybody in the room, including the subject members, saw that,” he said. “In the eyes of the public writ large, that is exactly the kind of conduct that raises serious concerns about fairness and impartiality.”

He said conduct boards that sit in judgment and make decisions that could affect the lives and careers of RCMP members “need to be above reproach.”

“This hearing will be unfair if we proceed with this current board,” he said.

Mesbah, Solven and Dick all denied allegations of workplace harassment and discreditable conduct that is alleged to have occurred between January 2019 and May 2021.

The three officers and their lawyers declined to comment after the hearing was adjourned.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press