A young Squamish man who was recruited by the RCMP had a potentially great policing career ahead of him.
But today, Satnam Dhaliwal's work with the police force is basically over after he admitted he made some bad decisions.
On April 7, an RCMP internal disciplinary hearing found Dhaliwal and Const. Deri Kinsey guilty of emailing inappropriate messages to each other over the RCMP's Computer Integrated Information Data System. The finding led the police force to order the two RCMP members to resign, accused of "conducting themselves in a disgraceful manner that could discredit the force."
Portions of transcripts from the e-mail messages shared by Dhaliwal and Kinsey were ublished. From the excerpts it is apparent the messages had racist and sexist elements along with demeaning comments about co-workers and supervisors.
The Chief contacted lawyer Ujjal Dosanjh, the attorney for Dhaliwal and Kinsey, and from that contact Dhaliwal agreed to be an interview. The interview did not take place as Dhaliwal failed to contact The Chief.
Dosanjh said he is appealing the RCMP decision on behalf of his clients. The attorney expects the appeal to take many months.
Dosanjh is a former B.C. premier and is currently seeking a seat in Parliament as a Liberal candidate.
Sgt. John Ward of the RCMP's E-Division communications department confirmed that Dhaliwal and Kinsey did not resign as they were ordered to. Ward said they both filed appeals of the RCMP adjudication board decision.
"They are both suspended with pay for the time being," Ward said. "The suspension will run until the external review board makes its decision and passes that on to the commander. And, the pay status lies with the commander."
Dhaliwal and Kinsey allege that they are the victims of personal vendettas. Ward did not respond to that specific allegation.
"There are a number of processes in place, if these members or any member feels there is a vendetta or they are not being treated fairly there's two or three processes they can apply to," Ward said. The RCMP Complaints Commission handles complaints from members.
S/Sgt. Cliff Doherty reported that Dhaliwal submitted his RCMP application while he resided in Squamish. He added that once Dhaliwal completed RCMP training he was posted to North Vancouver, but declined to comment further.
