RCMP leader accused suspended Coquitlam officers of mounting 'campaign of hate'

The head of Coquitlam's RCMP detachment accused three of his officers of waging "a campaign of hate" in an email sent to staff earlier this year after one of the Mounties defended himself at a code of conduct hearing into allegations of homophobia, racism and sexism.

In a detachment-wide message sent the morning after Const. Ian Solven appeared to blame the pressures of policing for his derogatory posts to chat groups, Supt. Darren Carr said he wanted to "share his feelings" about proceedings he said he found "extremely difficult to watch."

In the email, titled 'MUST READ — CONDUCT HEARING,' Carr wrote that listening to "highly offensive, hurtful and degrading pejoratives used to belittle our colleagues and members of the public" brought on "a broad range of feelings."

"But the most salient emotion has been anger, anger borne out of watching sworn members openly engage in racism, homophobia, sexism and misogyny," Carr wrote in the email, which CBC obtained through a federal Access to Information request.

"What has been even more infuriating has been watching testimony that has attempted largely to justify their actions," he continued.

"I want to be very clear that while we are all capable at times of being insensitive or clumsy, the actions of these members can only be characterized as a campaign of hate, designed to hurt and divide."

'Tasering unarmed Black people'

Along with constables Philip Dick and Mersad Mesbah, Solven is facing dismissal for a series of posts to a private chat on the Signal app and messages sent over the RCMP's internal mobile data messaging system. All three have been suspended since June 2021.

According to a copy of a search warrant obtained by CBC, the officers are accused of a wide variety of slurs and insults, including bragging about "Tasering unarmed Black people," calling a sexual assault investigation "stupid," and mocking the bodies of female colleagues.

The hearing into the allegations broke abruptly after just a few days in early March following news of Carr's email — which Solven's lawyer called "inflammatory" — and the 11th-hour surfacing of a witness expected to contradict the impugned officer's testimony.

At the time, Solven's lawyer called the email "highly problematic," accusing RCMP brass of intimidating defence witnesses who work at the Coquitlam detachment and had yet to testify.

The email has since become part of the basis for an application to stay the proceedings due to abuse of process stemming from alleged interference in the proceedings. The code of conduct board has yet to rule on the application.

While an RCMP spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that the code of conduct hearing is still active, no new dates have been posted, and there is no information about the progress of any proceedings out of public view.

A 'crystal clear' followup email

The initial email was sent from Carr's account but signed "warmly" from all seven members of the Coquitlam RCMP's senior leadership team. The documents released to the CBC include a followup email sent the following afternoon "to clarify" Carr's original missive.

"I want to be crystal clear and leave no doubt that my email was in no way intended to influence or prejudge the outcome of the independent conduct hearing process," Carr wrote in the second email.

"The subject members have the right to fully defend themselves, and no one should feel pressured or unduly influenced in any way in deciding whether to testify as a witness in the matter, or in the content of their testimony."

According to court documents, the allegations against Solven, Dick and Mesbah came to light after one of their fellow officers complained about what he saw as "atrocious" and "racist and horrible" activity by his colleagues.

Investigators reviewed posts to the Signal chat group as well as 600,000 messages posted to the RCMP's internal chat logs — finding evidence of "frequently offensive" usage by the three officers facing termination for "homophobic and racist slurs."

"The reviewers had identified a variety of comments that were 'chauvinist in nature, with a strong air of superiority, and include flippant or insulting remarks about clients (including objectifying women), supervisors, colleagues, policy and the RCMP as a whole,'" the search warrant said.

'Not representative of the Coquitlam detachment'

During his testimony, Solven became emotional, choking back tears as he described what he claimed were examples of management ignoring the concerns of front-line police officers who then took their frustrations to what they assumed would remain a private chat group.

"It was definitely a space where we felt comfortable that we could vent our frustrations about our job and about our co-workers," he said.

"In a space that was safe."

Solven claimed the posts were taken out of context and "not who I am as a person."

He also insisted he apologized to a female officer for joking about her weight — a claim she almost immediately challenged, contacting supervisors in the hours after Solven's testimony, claiming he "outright lied in his evidence," according to a lawyer for the RCMP.

Carr's initial email said the proceedings and associated media coverage had "re-triggered" members of the detachment, noting that "being a police officer is a privilege, not a right, and it is vitally important that we maintain the trust of the public whom we serve."

"I know that these three members are not representative of the Coquitlam detachment," Carr wrote.