RCMP Watch

Glenn Bohn, Vancouver Sun

An RCMP officer who has been accused of buying sex from two teenaged prostitutes in Prince George between 1993 and 2001 may soon be returning to active duty.

Const. Justin Harris, who maintains his innocence and has never been criminally charged, was suspended with pay in September 2004 and accused under the RCMP Act of behaving in a “disgraceful manner.”At a disciplinary hearing in Vancouver last October, an RCMP investigator testified that one of the women said she was between the ages of 13 and 15 when she had sex with Harris, who is now in his early 30s.

That woman, who can be publicly identified only as C.C., told investigators Harris once paid her $60 for oral sex and struck her in the face when she refused to perform the act without a condom.

Senior members of the RCMP testified they were aware of the allegations against Harris as early as July 2002. A three-person panel threw out the disciplinary charges last October after the constable’s lawyer successfully argued that under the RCMP Act, a commanding officer must launch a disciplinary hearing within one year of becoming aware of an RCMP officer’s misconduct. In other words, the Mounties had taken too long to make a case against one of their own.

RCMP Const. Annie Linteau, a media relations officer at regional headquarters in Vancouver, confirmed Monday that deputy RCMP commissioner Gary Bass lifted the suspension in April and ordered Harris reinstated as a full-time RCMP officer.

However, Linteau said Harris has not yet started working again because a security screening assessment -which normally takes four to six weeks - hasn’t yet been completed.

Mandatory firearms and first-aid tests also haven’t been done, she said. Until Harris successfully completes those return-to-work requirements, she said, the RCMP cannot reassign him.

She said it’s too early to say where he might be posted or what kind of new assignment he will have.

“We’ve yet to figure out a placement for him,” she said in an interview. Harris’s lawyer,

Reginald Harris, said his client is “ecstatic” about returning to work. “He’s looking forward to the day when he gets back to active duty,” said the lawyer, who is not related to his client.

Last December, the RCMP filed an appeal of the October ruling. Harris’s lawyer said the RCMP dropped the appeal after one of the complainants died of natural causes, which meant only one complainant could testify. The lawyer said the remaining complainant’s testimony was “fraught with inconsistencies.”

“At one point, she said nothing happened at all,” he said. “Much further down the road, she said something did happen - at the same time she alleged a municipal police officer stole her $30,000 Spiderman comic book, or something like that.”

Warren Adam, the Prince George-based executive director of Carrier Sekani Family Services, which provides and social services to aboriginal children and families, called the reinstatement a “miscarriage of justice.”

Adam said there should have been a public inquiry instead of an RCMP disciplinary hearing.

“Far too often, the justice system tends to evaluate itself, outside the purview of society,” Adam said. “Those who are most vulnerable keep falling through the cracks. Unless there’s a new reform of the entire system, from policing to judges, we’ll continue to be subjected to a miscarriage of justice such as this.”

Accusations that Const. Harris and other RCMP officers in Prince George were buying sex from girls first surfaced as a result of an RCMP investigation into former Prince George provincial court judge David Ramsay.

In June 2004, Ramsay was sentenced to seven years in jail after pleading guilty to one count of sexual assault causing bodily harm, three counts of obtaining the sexual services of someone under the age of 18 and breach of trust of a public officer.