ASIRT recommended charging Lethbridge officers who searched MLA, but Crown won't prosecute: letter
CBC
Alberta's police watchdog recommended laying charges against three Lethbridge officers who used police databases to improperly access the personal information of two people, including NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, but the Crown's office has declined to prosecute, CBC News has learned.
Details of two recently completed Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigations come from a letter sent by ASIRT director Mike Ewenson to Phillips's lawyer, Michael Bates.
CBC has obtained a copy of the letter, dated May 17.
The correspondence details the outcomes of two ASIRT investigations into unauthorized access of police data at the Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) in 2017 and 2018.
Despite calling the Crown's refusal to pursue charges "quite regrettable," Phillips says she is feeling vindicated after years of pursuing police accountability.
"I think it sends a message to the public that in order to get even a sliver of accountability, even a tiny little ray of light on transparency and accountability in a police service, you have to fight, you have to pay a personal cost, you have to wait years, and even then it will be partial," said Phillips in a phone interview.
"The system overall is quite broken."
In 2017, Phillips, the NDP's environment minister at the time, along with local conservationist Harvey Locke and some other friends were watched and photographed by Sgt. Jason Carrier and Const. Keon Woronuk as they met at a Lethbridge diner.
Woronuk then followed Phillips and ran Locke's licence plate through the police database after the pair left the diner.
The officers had also taken photos of the group and posted them anonymously online.
Both officers were involved in the off-roading community, whose members were upset by plans by the then-NDP government to restrict off-road vehicle use and create a provincial park in the environmentally sensitive Castle area of southwestern Alberta.
Carrier and Woronuk — who admitted his actions were motivated by his personal and political views — were both convicted of offences under the Police Act and demoted.
In its investigation, ASIRT determined that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that one officer committed a criminal offence" by accessing Locke's information without a lawful purpose.
ASIRT sent its investigative findings to the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service (ACPS).
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