Cop accused of racial profiling found not guilty

Accusation stemmed from officer stopping black city councillor

A Hamilton police constable accused of arbitrarily stopping a black city councillor as he waited for a bus two years ago has been found not guilty of discreditable conduct.

As hearing officer Terence Kelly read his decision Thursday, the left side of the room, filled with community members there to support Ward 3 Coun. Matthew Green, shouted “shame.” The right side of the room, largely made up of current and retired police officers supporting Const. Andrew Pfeifer, responded by clapping.

“I lack the necessary confidence of Mr. Green’s credibility to accept his evidence he was psychologically detained,” said Kelly, a retired York region deputy chief. “It is my belief the officer acted as one would ex-

pect,” he said, later adding that Green appeared “resentful” under cross-examination and was prone to speeches.

Outside the hearing, Green said it was the outcome he expected and pointed to what he called a “reasonable assumption of bias” in the Police Services Act’s disciplinary system that has the police chief appoint the prosecutor and hearing officer, who is also a police officer.

“I had no hopes that I would be finding a favourable hearing today; what I did plan to do was to stand on my truth,” he said, adding that it was important to go through the process to get the complaint on record.

“If we don’t file formal complaints, then the police services can take the position this is not a problem,” he said.

Green’s lawyer, Wade Poziomka, who was disappointed but not surprised by the decision, said they will now turn their attention to reactivating a complaint before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario that had to be put on hold for the Police Services Act hearing.

However, Pfeifer’s lawyer, Bernard Cummins, said the decision was exactly what he’d expected and that there was nothing wrong with the hearing process.

“What was on trial was Mr. Green’s insufferable ego,” he said. “A very simple task — who was telling the truth? and it became very clear who was telling the truth right from the get-go.”

The incident happened exactly two years ago to the date of the decision — April 26, 2016 — as Green waited for a bus, shielding himself from the wind under an overpass. Const. Pfeifer said he stopped to ask Green if he was OK, out of concern for his mental health. Green said “are you OK?” was the last question asked, and only after the officer learned his identity.

Police prosecutor Brian Duxbury never mentioned racism during his questioning, instead arguing the stop lasted too long and that Pfeifer’s story was an after-the-fact attempt at justification.

“These types of things that we’re talking about where our police officers stop and speak with people, check on their wellbeing, these happen every day in Hamilton, if not multiple times, and this is the only complaint that we have at the Hamilton Police Service in front of us right now,” Hamilton Police Association president Clint Twolan said outside the hearing, where he also faced questions from frustrated community members asking about racial profiling. He said police work hard to build bridges, but found this case actually “drove a wedge into those relations” by unfairly reducing trust.