The Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board says a complaint filed against the Victoria department by a former board member will be handled by investigators from Surrey and Delta.
Former member Paul Schachter told the board on Tuesday (March 19) that policing in Victoria is facing a “crisis of integrity” as he laid out concerns over how a B.C. Supreme Court judge called out officers for “intentionally lying” to prosecutors and the court, derailing a major drug investigation.
Schachter says he made a six-part complaint under the Police Act against the department last month, claiming there’s a “failure in general direction and management or operation” of the Victoria Police Department.
Schachter says the results of any external investigation spurred by his complaint should be overseen by the board, rather than the department’s leadership.
Victoria Police Board member Paul Faoro says officers from the Delta Police Department and Surrey Police Service will be investigating Schachter’s complaint.
Faoro says it’s a “complex investigation” and the board can expect to hear back from external investigators by early this fall.
The external inquiry stems from what became Project Juliet, a months-long effort by a VicPD Strike Force that led to a $30-million bust of fentanyl, firearms and other drugs.
The case collapsed after it was revealed an allegedly corrupt officer was involved and VicPD members actively hid that information. All three alleged drug-traffickers charged through Project Juliet have had their charges stayed as a result.
The Strike Force began its investigative work in the spring of 2020 and involved former VicPD officer Rob Ferris, even though officers knew he had been under investigation since 2019. The RCMP arrested Ferris in June 2020 in connection to misconduct that included improperly accessing databases, lying to investigators and providing sensitive information to police suspects.
Ferris never faced charges, despite a police watchdog substantiating all 19 counts of misconduct, and resigned before his dismissal from the force could take effect.
While the Strike Force ended its investigation into alleged drug-traffickers upon Ferris’ arrest, they resumed it days later under the new Project Juliet moniker.
Court documents outline how Strike Force members: used investigative work that preceded Ferris’ arrest despite claiming they wouldn’t; intentionally concealed how information came from the investigation involving the compromised officer; and obtained judicial authorizations using evidence Ferris helped gather.
“Not only did police not mention the first investigation, they obscured it,” Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray wrote in a decision from last October.
“Investigators misled the Crown, defence and the Justices that issued authorizations and warrants into believing that the investigation commenced in June 2020.”
A lawyer for one of the accused found a report dated months before the Strike Force claimed it started its work. That led to a Crown lawyer asking the Strike Force’s primary investigator about the discrepancy. Murray’s decision cites the investigator responded that it was “an admin oversight” and “there is no investigative or administrative material whatsoever prior to June 23, 2020.”
Police rely on public trust to do their work and doubt about VicPD’s truthfulness hurts all officers, Schachter said.
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