Frank Peebles (Prince George Citizen) – The Citizen has learned the investigation into the on-the-job behaviour of Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers has been upgraded from a simple fact-finding review to an official disciplinary probe by the RCMP.
It is nearly complete, according to RCMP sources, and does not, in itself, determine guilt or innocence of an allegation or set of allegations.
“It is what is called a Part 4 investigation under the RCMP Act,” said Chief Supt. Barry Clark, the RCMP’s commanding officer for North District.
This section of the federal statutes governing the RCMP outlines a number of options for internal discipline, from informal directions (extra training, counselling, etc.) to a full Code of Conduct.
“This is a Code of Conduct,” Insp. Paul Darbyshire, commander of the RCMP’s E-Division professional standards unit, told The Citizen on Thursday. “It is still under investigation, but it is nearing completion.”
The relationship between Chambers and the city’s top civilian employee at the local RCMP detachment, Ann Bailey, has been termed a conflict of interest in a report commissioned by the City of Prince George.
However, that report has not been acted upon since it was completed months ago.
Chambers said earlier the reason he believes it hasn’t been acted upon is because the report’s author, lawyer Kitty Heller of K.J. Heller Law Corp. in Vancouver, does not understand the levels of professional hierarchy that separate him and Bailey, his live-in partner.
Bailey declined to comment.
Chambers also said city administrators were made aware of the relationship long ago and it has been scrutinized for any crossing of lines and none was found.
Although they do attend certain meetings together and their jobs are in the same building, Chambers said they do not report to each other — Bailey is a city employee while Chambers is an RCMP employee — nor does Bailey report to any RCMP officer, nor does Chambers report to any city employee.
Chambers has been given one informal disciplinary directive in the matter. A letter of apology was presented to all four of the complainants at the centre of the issue. The Citizen has been made aware that all four letters were identical and delivered after the fact-finding review was underway, but before the investigation was redefined as a Code of Conduct.
Prince George RCMP spokesman Const. Gary Godwin explained that, in general terms not specific to this matter, a Code of Conduct is a special investigation into whether or not a Mountie broke the rules of the RCMP Act. That is the set of professional standards that governs all Mounties, over and above the regular laws of the land that they and everyone else must abide by.
“Police officers live under two codes,” explained Godwin. “We all live under the Criminal Code and provincial acts and municipal bylaws. Many professions also have their own set of rules for conduct and accordingly our profession also lives under the RCMP Act.”
If, through a Code of Conduct, it is determined that the allegations against the member are founded then a disciplinary hearing called Service Court is called, which is similar to a civilian trial or a military court martial or a public inquest.
“Any member can be taken to civilian court for breaking any law, but in addition to that or sometimes instead of that there is also Service Court,” Godwin explained. “Service Court has a lot of power. You can go to jail, you can suffer a docking of your pay, a demotion in rank, firing from the job … It all depends on the allegations.”
None of the allegations against Chambers have been officially listed or proven. B.C.’s top RCMP officer, Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, recently said in Prince George “I would characterize it as workplace conflict.”
Clark said that some involved in the process have wondered about the months it has taken to handle this internal RCMP investigation. He said Thursday that it is his belief that because the main complainants are not RCMP members, but civilians who worked in the detachment that “there is a little bit of new territory here” and it took a little longer to sort out the way legislation applied.
The media is not interested in old cases, even if you have proof of something and the RCMP’s Complaints Department which I think personally in my opinion is a joke are also not there or interested in cases that date back prior to 1988.
Appart from this keep us posted on how it goes for you.
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I personally know of only the one incident.
The report was in the newspapers at the time of the accident 1986 but the police pursuit was not investigated. I have tried to take it to The Province/The Sun newspapers a couple of days ago as I had found the old newspapers, coroners reports and my fathers inquest notes while cleaning out his belongings.
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Anything else in the history that you could care to share, or is it the one instance to which you refer?
Has the report been made public?
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I find it VERY ironic that Paul Darbyshire is now an Inspector for Vancouver RCMP working with the Professional Standards Unit since he has a history of poor conduct himself. I think he is being a hypocrit to be investigating an office romance when he killed 2 teenagers in a police pursuit in Richmond, B.C. in 1986.
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