Former director says police commission failed in case concerning city officers

Inquiry told of ‘toxic’ environment, verbal abuse by at least one member

The body overseeing city police was reluctant to challenge the force in how it dealt with two officers whose credibility in court was slammed by a judge, an inquiry into the matter was told Wednesday.

And in making those criticisms, the Calgary police commission’s former complaints director, Shirley Heafey, said she was verbally abused amid a “toxic” environment by at least one commission member, adding she lodged a complaint with the organization that has gone nowhere.

“I was screamed at during a meeting ... this was abusive, it was humiliating,” said Heafey, who was with the commission until late 2015.

“I filed a complaint but the whole thing was quashed.”

Heafey was testifying during a Law Enforcement Review Board inquiry into whether there was proper oversight into the case of Const. Brant Derrick and Sgt. Les Kaminski, who were charged with perjury and assault following their testimony in the 2010 trial of Hells Angels member Jason Arkinstall.

Both were later either acquitted or had their charges dropped.

In his ruling while acquitting Arkinstall, Provincial Court Judge Terry Semenuk said the officers’ testimony wasn’t credible as it contradicted what appeared in a video of Arkinstall’s 2008 arrest in downtown Calgary.

And he also said the handcuffed Arkinstall “was struck by a baton and otherwise physically abused” by Derrick and Kaminski.

Kaminski is now the president of the Calgary Police Association.

On Wednesday, Heafey told the inquiry she was stymied by the commission in the years after Semenuk’s comments by being removed from crucial parts of meetings of the CPC’s complaints oversight committee.

“I was excluded from my own meetings ... I was prevented from doing what I was supposed to do,” she said.

Defence lawyer Tom Engel asked Heafey if the commission failed to perform its oversight job in the Arkinstall case after the CPS had decided not to launch a criminal investigation of the two officers and instead opted for an administrative review and counselling.

Heafey answered in the affirmative.

“There was a lot of ‘let it go.’” Ola Malik, a lawyer acting for the commission, insisted it was Heafey who failed in her duties to ensure complaints against police were properly handled.

“You make decisions on how your statutory obligations are exercised

I was screamed at during a meeting ... this was abusive, it was humiliating. I filed a complaint but the whole thing was quashed.

— nobody does that job but you,” said Malik.

While the inquiry can’t set blame, it can make recommendations to Alberta’s justice minister.

The inquiry resumes Thursday.