Lethbridge Police Commission delays decision on public inquiry requested by MLA Shannon Phillips’ lawyer – Lethbridge

The Lethbridge Police Fee will probably be taking one other month to determine whether or not or to not decide to a public inquiry, requested after whistleblower letters alleged retaliation towards Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips and others.

The request for a public inquiry was made by Calgary defence lawyer Michael Bates — who represents Phillips and one other Lethbridge resident — after whistleblower letters acquired in June allegedly recommended potential retaliation measures towards the MLA and a member of the media.

That request was made to the police fee at its assembly on Sep. 29, and on Wednesday, fee chair Rob Van Spronsen stated extra time is required to decide.

“We haven’t stated that we’re not going to go forward with one. What we stated is we’d like some extra time to determine whether or not or not we’re going to do it,” Van Spronsen advised World Information following the assembly.

“There’s a variety of various factors that go into making a call to enter an inquiry, so we need to take a while.

“We simply bought some recommendation from our authorized counsel on Oct. 22, so we simply want some extra time to course of and work it by means of. We didn’t need to make a fast and hasty resolution.”

Phillips responded to Wednesday evening’s non-decision on Twitter following the assembly: “We’ve got waited, patiently and quietly, for a full month. We’re being requested to attend but once more. We’re inspecting our authorized choices.”

Phillips was the topic of unauthorized police surveillance by Lethbridge Police Service officers in 2017 when she was the NDP atmosphere minister.

The MLA added that she won’t be offering additional touch upon the matter till she has consulted additional with Bates.

Van Spronsen was requested if he believes processes are being adopted correctly and if LPS is being held accountable.

“I actually do. We met with the chief, we talked about it, we seemed into it. The insurance policies are in place, and the place there are breaches, there are processes in place,” the chair stated.

“Once we speak about accountability, all of us have totally different definitions of what accountability is. Once more, that’s why we predict course of is extraordinarily essential. If there’s a course of in place, and the steps are there — and so if we observe the steps to its conclusion, we observe the method — there’s accountability. We’re accountable to creating positive we observe the method.”

Van Spronsen says the LPC expects to have a call on or earlier than its subsequent assembly, which is scheduled for Nov. 24.