A lawyer for three British Columbia RCMP officers facing dismissal over alleged racist group chats says a conduct board panel should be replaced over “real or perceived” bias against the officers.
Wes Dutcher-Walls, a defence lawyer for Coquitlam RCMP constables Mersad Mesbah, Ian Solven and Philip Dick, says emails between board members and staff referred to his clients as the “three amigos.”
Dutcher-Walls says the use of the term “amigos,” which means male friends in Spanish, among the board shows a “broader pattern” of dismissiveness and skepticism, and he urged the panel members to recuse themselves as a matter of fairness.
He says the use of the term is “problematic,” and evokes U.S. President Donald Trump’s referral to Mexican people as “bad hombres,” and a “brash American tourist ordering a beer in Cancun.”
However, John MacLaughlan, a lawyer for the RCMP conduct authority, says the use of the term “amigos” was innocuous, not derogatory, and the defence is making a “desperate” 11th-hour legal manoeuvre to argue issues that have already been decided.
MacLaughlan says the board has policing expertise and should dismiss the defence bid to have the members recuse themselves after a “years-long saga” to have the matter heard.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
