Hamilton cop takes over troubled RCMP unit

Susan Clairmont,The Hamilton Spectator

A veteran Hamilton cop who has made a career of gathering intelligence is putting an elite RCMP unit back on track amid allegations of racism, assault and systemic indifference.

The organized-crime busting Golden Horseshoe Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit based in Stoney Creek was decimated when five Mounties — about half the unit — accused their commander of using racist epithets and assaulting suspects, including choking one with a phone cord and tying another to a tree naked. They claim when they tried to report his wrongdoings, Inspector Jym Grimshaw punished them with counter-allegations, bad performance reviews and smear tactics. And that Grimshaw’s bosses turned a blind eye.

The allegations are in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court. The officers are off on medical leave with post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed by police experts in January 2006. They are suing the RCMP for $1 million each. The officers’ claims have yet to be proved in court. No statement of defence has been filed yet.

Since September, Acting Inspector Ted Davis, who used to head up the intelligence branch of the Hamilton Police Service, has been seconded to the CFSEU to replace Grimshaw. It is the first time the unit has been run by anyone other than an RCMP officer. He came after Grimshaw was moved to CFSEU headquarters in Toronto where he is now second in command and after the five officers went on leave. He will be there indefinitely.

“The morale here is excellent,” the 31-year veteran says, even as stories on the lawsuit fill newspapers. “We have a professional group of people working here … It’s one of the most professional organizations I’ve ever worked for.”

Davis says running the unit is his dream job. “This is the pinnacle of my career,” he says. “This takes me out of just Hamilton and has me and my unit working throughout the entire Golden Horseshoe.”

Launched in 2002, the CFSEU is headed by the RCMP and seconds top investigators from police services and government agencies. Its mandate is to “investigate, dismantle, disrupt and prosecute” organized crime.

In its first two years of operation, the unit failed to make a single arrest.

At various times, depending on the current investigation, the unit includes members from the Hamilton, Niagara, Halton, Brantford and Waterloo police services as well as from the OPP, RCMP, Canada Customs and the Canadian Border Services. It is funded and administered by the RCMP. Right now, there is a second Hamilton officer seconded to the unit. Members of the Hamilton intelligence unit are also involved with the unit’s current project. The size of the unit fluctuates, with anywhere from nine to 15 members.

Grimshaw, who came to the CFSEU from the provincial biker task force, is a 36-year member of the RCMP. He was put in charge of the Stoney Creek combined forces unit in May 2005.

The 50-page claim filed with the court includes allegations Grimshaw swore and called a Hispanic officer a “Mexican” and a “spic,” that he called an officer of Korean descent a “nip” and a “Chinaman.” And when a black officer said he had plans to go to a cottage, Grimshaw said, “It would look very funny, black people at a cottage.”

At the Six Nations reserve in Caledonia in September 2005, Grimshaw is said to have told an RCMP aboriginal liaison officer that “these are f…ing Indians and they are lazy. They will find excuses for not doing the work.”

One officer says Grimshaw falsified documents after his cruiser was in an accident and then disciplined the officer when he was challenged.

Grimshaw allegedly boasted about strangling a suspect with a phone cord while searching a home. Once he realized his actions were on an RCMP wiretap, Grimshaw is said to have destroyed the incriminating tape. In another instance, Grimshaw allegedly stripped a man in Port Colborne, handcuffed him to a tree and left him there while he drank in his police car.

The five complainants are Sergeant Peter Kidd, Constables Luis Cerritos and Augustine Chung and Corporals David Hoto and Gerard Markie. They say they took their issues with their inspector all the way up to RCMP Commissioner Bev Busson last month and were ignored. Before that, they say they went to a superintendent with their complaints.

Media officer Sergeant Michele Paradis says the RCMP has no comment on the lawsuit because it is before the court.

The RCMP is embroiled in a number of lawsuits and scandals right now, including allegations of wrongdoing and coverup in the handling of its pension fund. Senior officers are accused of dismissing or covering up warnings of unethical and illegal behaviour. High- ranking officers are said to have punished whistle-blowers. That matter is being examined by the House of Commons public accounts committee. Disgraced former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli is expected to testify.

Angela Byrne, the Calgary lawyer representing the five Golden Horseshoe officers, has been involved in other cases against the RCMP including four female officers who filed a sexual harassment suit against a supervisor. The Stoney Creek office was “a poison work environment,” she says.