What does BC United
leader Kevin Falcon say
about MLA and former RCMP
top cop Mike Morris’ responsibility
in
the multi-year cover-up
of Prince George RCMP
sexual misconduct?
Nothing
In his stubborn opposition to civilian investigation of police
sexual misconduct, Mike Morris differs not at all from every
other B.C. MLA. But this ex-cop might have a personal stake
in keeping the Prince George cover-up covered up.
As of September 17, 2023, Falcon hasn’t responded to this letter. If he adheres to B.C. legislature practice, he never will.
To: Kevin Falcon
B.C. Leader of the Opposition
June 5, 2023
Dear Mr. Falcon:
As you should know, recently revealed evidence shows RCMP covered up allegations that Prince George RCMP officers committed ongoing sexual misconduct against Indigenous teenage girls. That cover-up implicates BC United MLA Mike Morris. Therefore he holds a conflict of interest as your party’s shadow minister for Public Safety and Solicitor General, as he did when he was Solicitor General under your party’s BC Liberal government. The SG’s responsibilities, of course, include police accountability.
Additionally, Morris has zero credibility on that subject. British Columbians need a strong opposition voice on the issue, especially if Solicitor General Mike Farnworth finally introduces the Police Act changes he’s been talking about since at least 2019.
The Prince George RCMP cover-up came to public attention through articles in the Toronto Star on November 6, 2022, and Vancouver Sun on February 3, 2023, after a Star journalist obtained a confidential RCMP report and other material showing Mounties were negligent in their investigation of some evidence and disregarded other evidence regarding very disturbing conduct.
The allegations had come forward by the early 2000s and also named Prince George provincial judge David Ramsay. In 2004 Ramsay was convicted of crimes including sexual assault causing bodily harm, three counts of obtaining sexual services from a minor and breach of trust by a public officer. The victims were Indigenous teenage girls.
As stated by Highway of Tears author Jessica McDiarmid in the Star on November 6, “While the RCMP had for years been aware of allegations involving its officers, it was only in June 2004, after Ramsay pleaded guilty, that the Mounties struck a task force to probe the allegations.”
But, as shown by the evidence McDiarmid revealed, RCMP officers mishandled some evidence and ignored other evidence against their colleagues. As the top-ranking officer for that entire region up to 2005, Morris holds ultimate responsibility for those cover-ups up to that year.
His BC United biography mentions “visiting every First Nations community, village, town, district and city in his area of responsibility.” That reinforces the fact that he must have known about the allegations against his fellow Mounties and how those allegations were being handled.
But the cover-ups likely could not have happened if B.C. put sexual misconduct allegations under independent civilian investigation, as do most Canadian provinces. As current shadow Solicitor General, a member of the 2019 legislative committee into reforming B.C.’s Police Act and previous government Solicitor General, Morris has rejected calls to put these matters under the authority of the Independent Investigations Office, B.C.’s only nominally civilian agency for investigating police.
Morris’ objection is hardly surprising. Independent civilian investigation could jeopardize his professional and personal reputation, as well as that of his friends and former fellow Mounties. Independent civilian investigation might even bring Morris legal repercussions. That creates a blatant conflict of interest.
This isn’t a partisan issue. Whether in the legislature or on all-party legislative committees, all three provincial parties reject calls to implement civilian investigation of police sex crimes.
But under the name of BC United and BC Liberals, your party has represented the Prince George area, where these allegations have been well known for over 20 years. Your Prince George-area MLAs have held or still hold ideal positions to either recommend, advocate for, or even legislate civilian investigation into such matters.
BC United MLA Shirley Bond has represented Prince George-Valemount since 2001. She had to have known about the Ramsay scandal and related allegations against Prince George RCMP. As Solicitor General in 2011, she oversaw the creation of B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office. She claimed it would be modeled after, and would even surpass, Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit. But she ensured that the IIO, unlike the SIU and agencies in most other provinces, would not investigate sexual misconduct.
As BC United MLA for the neighbouring riding of Peace River North, Dan Davies also must know about the longstanding allegations against Prince George RCMP. He took part in the 2020-to-2022 legislative committee that supposedly recommended an overhaul of B.C.’s Police Act. But, like the committee’s nine other MLAs from three parties, he rejected public submissions calling for civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct.
On a related topic, it’s worth noting that Davies and the other committee members also rejected public submissions calling for police body cameras. The coroner’s inquest held last April into the 2015 beating death of Myles Gray once again highlighted how seven Vancouver police officers evaded criminal charges by giving wildly divergent accounts of the incident. The coroner’s jury recommended body cameras for Vancouver police; Alberta plans to make body cameras mandatory for all its police forces. But Davies and the other committee members rejected public submissions calling for province-wide implementation of body cameras.
Among other BC United/BC Liberal MLAs, Ellis Ross, Trevor Halford and Karin Kirkpatrick have also taken part in legislative committees that rejected calls for civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct.
Likewise your party, while in government and in opposition, has rejected calls to bring transparency and accountability to B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. The OPCC conducts most of its work in secret and has been held accountable just once—back in 2002. Evidence since then strongly suggests that the OPCC has taken advantage of its secrecy and unaccountability to conduct at least four cover-ups on behalf of police.
Three of those four cover-ups involve police misconduct against women. Two of those cover-ups involve police sexual misconduct towards women. Another cover-up involves gratuitous police brutality against a disabled Indigenous woman.
But prominent in B.C.’s shameful police accountability record are more than 20 years of cover-ups regarding the Prince George allegations—especially since they’re related to proven evidence against a provincial court judge. That casts an especially disturbing perspective on B.C. police, as well as B.C.’s system of police accountability and the politicians who support it.
And prominent among B.C. politicians who support this odious system is a Prince George MLA who may well have used it to benefit his fellow Mounties and might also benefit personally.
A first and necessary step to addressing the problem will be to remove Morris from the BC United shadow cabinet and caucus.
The next step will be to finally, at long last, take a belated stand on police accountability.
Greg Klein