Local MLAs aided the
Prince George RCMP cover-up
Dan Davies, Shirley Bond and Mike Morris blocked
civilian investigation of rape allegations against police
March 7, 2023
One of these cop-friendly collaborators served on a legislative committee into policing. Another was a former solicitor general/justice minister with responsibility for policing. Another is the current opposition critic for solicitor general and was formerly the government’s solicitor general; he has taken part in two legislative committees on policing and he commanded the Prince George-region RCMP. They all represent the region where an especially serious cop cover-up festered for about 20 years. They all contributed to the cover-up by—at the very least—supporting the system that allowed it to happen.
MLA Dan Davies: Thanks in part to him, cops can
cover up for cops accused of sexual misconduct.
Dan Davies “represents” the Peace River North riding bordering Prince George-Mackenzie. 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 signed off on a report so vague and confused that it gives B.C.’s cop-friendly government a free hand with interpretation.
Their report exudes trendy jargon and vague blather but makes no solid recommendations for cop accountability. Particularly negligent for a Prince George-region MLA, Davies ignored any suggestion that cops should not investigate cops, especially in cases of sexual misconduct.
MLA Shirley Bond: Thanks in part to her, cops can
cover up for cops accused of sexual misconduct.
Shirley Bond has “represented” Prince George-Valemount since 2001, a few years before the Prince George RCMP allegations came to public attention. As the province’s first female attorney general she considers herself a “trailblazer.” In fact she was a bottom-of-the-barrel choice for solicitor general, then also got the attorney general’s job in a desperate reshuffle of Christy Clark’s incompetent cabinet.
It was under her watch that B.C. created the Independent Investigations Office in 2011, following public outrage over Robert Dziekanski’s Taser-related death which led to the Thomas Braidwood commission. But although Braidwood recommended B.C. create an agency styled after Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, Bond and company sabotaged his suggestions to form something much weaker. Conspicuously excluded from IIO authority was civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct.
MLA Mike Morris: Thanks in part to him, cops can
cover up for cops accused of sexual misconduct.
Mike Morris “represents” Prince George-Mackenzie. An RCMP cop until 2005, he has two RCMP cop sons. During most of his last decade on the force he was the Mounties’ commanding officer for all but the southern quarter of B.C. In his BC Liberal bio he brags of “visiting every First Nations community, village, town, district and city in his area of responsibility.” So he knew about the rape allegations. He entrusted his fellow cops to “investigate” other fellow cops accused of rape. The “investigations” went nowhere and at least in some cases simply didn’t take place. All that began while Morris held top-ranking cop responsibility.
He continues to oppose civilian investigation. As an MLA he’s made that more than clear.
Morris took part in two legislative committees on policing, in 2018 and 2019. The first committee, comprised of five MLAs including three ex-cops, appointed ex-cop Clayton Pecknold to head B.C.’s ethically challenged Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. At no time was the OPCC’s corruption more obvious than under Pecknold’s predecessor Stan Lowe. Yet Morris and the rest of the 2018 committee “expresse[d] their gratitude to Mr. Lowe for his dedicated service to the province as Police Complaint Commissioner over the last ten years.”
Dedicated service meant taking part in at least four OPCC/police cover-ups that accidentally came to light despite the OPCC’s lack of transparency and accountability. One of them involved gratuitous police brutality on a disabled native woman.
While on the 2019 five-MLA committee, this one including two ex-cops, Morris signed off on a report that, for all its 38 suggestions, evaded real Police Act reform. He specifically ignored the need for civilian investigation of cops, especially in cases of sexual misconduct. Yet Morris had to be acutely aware of the allegations that circulated in his city for about 20 years, allegations that had surfaced while he was the region’s most powerful cop.
While solicitor general Morris had the power to reform B.C.’s Police Act by bringing transparency and accountability to the OPCC, and by putting sexual misconduct cases under civilian investigation. He didn’t.
As the current opposition critic for solicitor general Morris can push the government to institute these reforms. He doesn’t do so. Even in cases of sexual misconduct Morris continues to support cop-on-cop investigations that allowed the Prince George cover-up.
Morris, Bond and Davies are all BC Liberals, but this is hardly a partisan problem. NDP Solicitor General Mike Farnworth has long opposed police accountability while in government and opposition, while in the legislature or on all-party committees similar to the cynical exercises involving Davies and Morris. NDP Premier David Eby carefully avoided the topic of police accountability while crafting his career as a social justice phony. The Greens’ Adam Olsen has been a serial sell-out on three legislative committees into policing, further demonstrating the sad state of B.C.’s native leadership.
Opportunists all, they do this for career advancement along with the pay, perks and pensions that they could never earn in a real job. And in Morris’ case, he might also value a fraternal bond that transcends any ethical concern about sexual misconduct.
In the face of extremely disturbing allegations in their own region, these three consistently cop-friendly MLAs serve and protect the wrong people.
Related:
RCMP cover up rape allegations against Prince George Mounties
The supposed whistleblowers are part of the problem.
So are the media, not to mention B.C.’s legislature,
legal establishment and SJWs
Decolonizing corruption
B.C. wants to retain cop cover-ups, but with native participation
under a confused, weird and racially exclusive Police Act
The cop status quo matters
B.C. stands ready to manipulate identity politics
to support OPCC corruption
Read more about B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office
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