Lethbridge Police car (photo courtesy of Lethbridge News Now)

By Liam Verster

Police Misconduct Review

While ASIRT investigates illegal surveillance in Lethbridge, government works to expedite Police Act review

Jul 18, 2020 | 6:00 AM

An independent investigation has been launched into the two Lethbridge police officers who had illegally surveilled the NDP Environment Minister in 2017.

During a disciplinary hearing in June, both Sgt Jason Carrier and Cst Keon Woronuk admitted to surveilling MLA Shannon Phillips, as she had planned to turn a park that they used for off-roading into a provincial park where all-terrain vehicles would not be permitted.

The pair both admitted to taking photos of Phillips and the stakeholders she was meeting with at a diner in Lethbridge.

Woronuk also admitted to following one of the stakeholders Phillips met with, and illegally using the Canadian Police Information Centre to run a check on a license plate of one of the individuals.

On July 8, 2020, following the disciplinary hearing, Woronuk admitted to five counts under the Police Service Regulation including two counts of corrupt practice and a single count each of deceit, discreditable conduct and insubordination. He was demoted from Senior Constable to First-Class Constable.

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At the same time, Carrier admitted to discreditable conduct and neglect of duty and was demoted from Sergeant to Senior Constable for one year.

Minister of Justice and Solicitor General, Doug Schweitzer, says he heard about the outcome of the case on Monday, July 13. He immediately directed the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), the independent body that reviews police misconduct, to look into this case to see if criminal charges are required.

“So [ASIRT] is doing a review right now, to see what happened here and see if any further steps are required, because this is completely unacceptable Illegally surveilled people is offside, but also going after somebody that’s a Cabinet Minister because you don’t like the policy decisions that they make? We trust our police with an immense amount of power, and what happened here is just completely offside.”

Police accountability and transparency have been at the forefront of the public’s mind recently, and Schweitzer says the government is trying to expedite a Police Act review in the fall to help address some of those concerns.

“One of the areas that we’re focusing on is actually police misconduct, and how do you have that process work where Albertans have confidence in it and there’s transparency involved in the process. You hear lots of people complaining that it’s just the police investigating the police, and we need to make sure that this is transparent, that it has the community accountability into it, because we do trust the police with an immense amount of power, so we have to make sure that this is done right.”

He says the legislation, which they plan on bringing in next year, would include the ability to terminate a police officer for police misconduct, improve transparency for reviewing potential criminal conduct of police, and other issues, all of which are being discussed with a number of parties.

“We’re meeting with minority group leaders, we’re meeting with Indigenous leaders. We’re meeting with Chiefs of Police, we’re meeting with police officers, community leaders, right now into the fall, to get feedback and get to what this should look like going into the fall.”

Schweitzer adds that this is important to review as movements across the world are drawing attention to the way police conduct themselves. He adds that while most of the officers are amazing, there are a few bad apples, and there needs to be a process in place for dealing with them.

There is no official timeline on how long ASIRT’s review will take, and Schweitzer would not comment on what sort of charges the officers may face if ASIRT determines that criminal charges should be laid. If needed, ASIRT can request legal advice, as they need pre-trial approval from a prosecution service, they will be able to get that support from outside the province.

Schweitzer asks that those who have lost confidence in the police to look at the approach the government is now taking to address these recent actions.

“Within hours of learning about this police misconduct we took the right step in asking ASIRT to do the review. In response to public outcry for reform in police, we expedited a Police Act review, and we’re going to be bringing in new legislation next year on that topic. Police Act legislation can often take two, three, four years to develop, and we’re going to get it done in a year because we’ve heard the outcry and the need for change.”