Halifax RCMP sent ‘problematic’ email to councillors after Mounties stopped Black officer at gunpoint

Angela and Dean Simmonds

A Halifax councillor has raised concerns about the RCMP sharing details of its internal investigation into a high-profile incident this summer with some of his fellow councillors and not the Board of Police Commissioners.

At itsvirtual meeting on Monday, the board received correspondence from Coun. Waye Mason, a former commissioner, who drew attention to an email sent to some of his colleagues by Insp. Jeremie Landry, at that time in his capacity as acting chief officer of Halifax-district RCMP.

专员哈里·克里奇利（Harry Critchley）指出了董事会对梅森的信件的接受，并公开描述了随附的信。

“It was in regard to an event that was widely publicized in the media, which was the police stop that was conducted on Superintendent [Dean] Simmonds of HRP and his wife Angela Simmonds,” Critchley said.

As Matthew Byardreportedfor the Halifax Examiner, the Simmonds were pulled over at gunpoint in July:

Halifax Regional Police Superintendent Dean Simmonds, who is Black, and his wife Angela Simmonds, who is also Black, said they were racially profiled nearly two weeks earlier when RCMP stopped them and ordered them out of their vehicle at gunpoint with a C8 carbine rifle.

The RCMP said they were investigating a shooting that had been reported in North Preston, where the couple lives. In a statement, the RCMP acknowledged that “The high-risk traffic stop involved a vehicle that matched the suspect vehicle description, with an out-of-province license plate, that was coming from the direction of the nearby community.”

安吉拉·西蒙兹（Angela Simmonds）在这对夫妇上周五发表的一份联合声明中说：“与皇家骑警警察的互动提供了另一个例子，说明了黑人继续接受不人道待遇的方式，并被视为危险，不诚实，有罪，罪犯。”

An investigation is now underway.

安吉拉·西蒙兹（Angela Simmonds）当时正在寻求省选举中普雷斯顿的自由提名。她后来赢得了提名，然后赢得了选举，现在是该地区的MLA。迪恩·西蒙兹（Dean Simmonds）是哈利法克斯（Halifax）排名最高的警察之一，已有20年的历史。

Days after the incident became public, Landry, then-acting Halifax-district RCMP chief, wrote to Halifax regional councillors whose districts fall within the RCMP’s jurisdiction — mostly rural and some suburban areas of HRM. That email was included in the correspondence to the board as an attachment to Mason’s letter.

Correspondence to the board is public, so the Examiner requested a copy of Mason’s letter on Monday, but didn’t receive it until Thursday. In thecopy provided to the Examiner，兰德里给议员的电子邮件已完全删除。

The redactions cite sections 475(1)(a) and 475(1)(c) of the市政政府法：“如果可以合理地期望披露，则负责官员可以拒绝向申请人披露信息。”并“损害当前在执法部门中使用或可能使用的调查技术或程序的有效性”。

梅森（Mason）在7月20日的信中提出了三个主要问题，并致信库恩（Coun）。林德尔·史密斯（Lindell Smith）担任警察委员会主席：

I am writing to you today regarding an email sent regarding an active police complaint that was sent to some Halifax Regional Councillors regarding by the Acting Chief Officer of the Halifax Division on Sunday July 18 (attached).

总而言之，我的担心是：

1. 投诉程序将根据《警察法》进行，此更新可能是不合适的，而独立程序则进行。
2. Under the Police Act (NS) RCMP is responsible to the BOPC, not Council, as far as this goes given complaints are not a direct BOPC responsibility;
3. sending this update to “RCMP” district councillors not all councillors is potentially divisive. RCMP is one of two police forces serving the region, overseen by BOPC, and all of Council votes on the RCMP contract and budget.

梅森继续敦促董事会审查兰德里的电子邮件给议员，并“向加拿大皇家骑警的首席官提供建议”，并引用了《警察法》的相关部分。

“Given the unprecedented sensitivity around the current complaint involving RCMP and a senior HRP officer and a candidate for political office, I believe the BOPC should require the Chief Officer be required to review this case with the Board upon completion of the external complaint investigation,” Mason wrote.

“Finally, I urge the BOPC to consider adoption a communication policy for both forces so it is clear what type of info should be shared with which decision making body, and when.”

During Monday’s meeting, Critchley read aloud from Mason’s letter and suggested the board discuss it either then or at its next meeting.

哈利法克斯 - 区皇家骑警首席总监贾尼斯·格雷（Janis Gray）插话，说讨论应该在摄像机中进行，而无需公众观看。

“这不应该在摄像机中吗？我们正在讨论来自不同警察部门的特定成员。我只是问这个过程将是什么，而不是公开讨论这一点。”格雷说。

哈利法克斯 - 区皇家骑警首席总监贾尼斯·格雷（Janis Gray）在2019年7月在哈利法克斯警察委员会的一次会议上发表讲话。照片：Zane Woodford

史密斯回答说，围绕事件的讨论专门必须在摄像机中进行，但是围绕公共通信的讨论可能会公开发生。

Critchley eventually moved to have a discussion about the correspondence at the next meeting. It’s likely that will happen in camera, given Gray’s concerns.

Mason, in an interview Thursday, suggested that the chief officer’s insistence that the matter be discussed in camera is an indication that the email to councillors was inappropriate in the first place.

他说：“这太大了。”“There’s an active investigation that’s so sensitive that the RCMP and the clerks have decided that it needs to be entirely redacted, but the acting commander chose to communicate to political elected officials about an active investigation, and to only do so to the people are served by RCMP in Halifax. None of that is right.”

The board is responsible for overseeing policing and council approves the budgets, but RCMP and HRP both serve all of HRM, not just the councillors in their areas, Mason said. He doesn’t like that it went to council at all, as opposed to the police board, but he especially doesn’t like that it only went to RCMP-area councillors.

“I think it is safe to say that the RCMP may have felt that their side of the story wasn’t being told, and that is problematic,” Mason said.

这只是骑警和市政当局之间的最新一期。加拿大皇家骑警最近说他们weren’t going to apologize for street checks, as the board had asked them to do. Council passed a motion in April寻求对他们与国家警察部队的独特安排的独立审查。

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