Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find disturbing

The RCMP is calling for the dismissal of three officers who have been suspended from the Coquitlam detachment since June 2021 after being accused of making racist, sexist and homophobic comments in a group chat.

A police officer, Const. Philip Dick, is accused of using the “N-word” and going out of his way to provoke a black shoplifting suspect into a fight so he could use his Taser.

Dick also reportedly “posted a photo of a woman being used like a lawnmower and said, ‘That’s what they’re good for.'”

Another officer, Const. Ian Solven, allegedly called the victim a “stupid Mexican asshole” during a sexual assault investigation and bragged about his own experience using Tasers on unarmed black men.

The third officer, Const. Mersad Mesbah, is accused of mocking the weight of a new policewoman, calling her “disgusting” and “implying that the shape of her vagina was visible through her clothing.”

All of these allegations and more are set out in a document entitled “Information to Obtain” – an application that police officers file with the court when they want to obtain authorization for a search warrant – filed by a member of the Coquitlam department’s Professional Standards Division.

The document requested authorization to search a fourth officer’s phone for records of a group chat for members who work in the city of Port Coquitlam. The private chat group started on WhatsApp and later moved to the Signal app, according to the document.

The fourth officer, Const. Sam Sodhi, is the complainant in an RCMP code of conduct investigation opened against Dick, Solven and Mesbah in 2021. Sodhi consented to the search.

“That’s just how it is”

The Procurement Information document reveals that Sodhi was invited to join the group in March 2021 and that he found it “disgusting,” “racist” and “appalling.”

“One of the first comments made in the group after he was added was that ‘the intellectual level of this group has dropped,'” the document states. “This comment and the constant negativity of the chat group caused Sodhi to leave the group a few days later.”

After leaving, Sodhi was accused of being “not a team player” and told to rejoin the force because it was being used “for operational purposes and he needed to be a part of it,” the document said.

The document also describes Sodhi’s memories of interactions outside the group chat, including statements from Dick – who trained Sodhi as a new recruit – about the insults and obscene language members used on each other.

Dick reportedly told Sodhi that the group was “close-knit” and “liked to pander to each other.” Then he said, “You better stay cool, because that’s the way it is.”

The document suggests that the insults against Sodhi typically referred to either his race or his intelligence.

Solven is accused of calling Sodhi a “useless piece of shit” who “won’t make it” in the police force.

Mesbah is said to have told Sodhi, “Look at all your cousins,” referring to South Asian suspects in police reports.

“They are all gang members,” Mesbah is said to have said.

“Are you a cool brown guy?”

The document also alleges that Dick made fun of Sodhi during training by confronting him on his second day of work and asking him about a letter he had written as part of his application for a transfer to Coquitlam after graduating from the RCMP depot.

According to the document, Sodhi wrote in the letter that he wanted to work in an urban center where he could help at-risk youth who lack role models.

“Are you a cool brown guy or a brown guy from Surrey?” Dick is said to have asked, according to the information obtained.

“Because in this letter you’re crying as if you were saying, ‘Oh, I want to help dark-skinned people.'”

The document accuses Dick of repeatedly referring to “brown people,” repeatedly calling an RCMP colleague a “turban twister,” and describing another unit of the Coquitlam detachment as “like the Brothers Keepers” gang.

“Just a bunch of brown losers and there’s a black guy among them,” he is said to have said.

At one point, the document says, Sodhi told Dick that his comments were “kind of racist,” to which Dick allegedly responded:

“Oh no, no, I’m not racist. It’s just the bad guys I don’t like.”

He is also said to have said: “We are the police. They are against us. We against (them).”

Charter rights of officers

The Code of Conduct proceedings against Dick, Solven and Mesbah have been ongoing for years.

According to a recent provincial court decision, the delay was due in part to the RCMP’s failure to file a “report to a judge” regarding the seizure resulting from the search of Sodhi’s phone, which had been authorized in response to the information-gathering order.

The accused officers filed an application with the RCMP’s Conduct Board in November last year arguing that the seized data should be excluded from their code of conduct hearing on the grounds that the RCMP failed to follow its policies and failed to file the required report as soon as possible after the search.

According to the court ruling, the investigating officer did not submit the report because he “forgot to do so.” The report was eventually submitted 27 months late.

The RCMP Conduct Board concluded that this failure constituted a breach of the accused officers’ right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However, despite this violation, the Panel concluded that the seized data should not be excluded from the Code of Conduct hearing.

Provincial Court Judge Robin McQuillan also ruled that the seized data was necessary for the Code of Conduct Committee’s proceedings and ordered it to be withheld until those proceedings were completed.

In his decision, McQuillan notes the “problematic” nature of the RCMP’s non-compliance with the guidelines, but concludes that the body that should determine the consequences of that non-compliance – if any – is the Conduct Board.

The Code of Conduct Committee’s schedule calls for hearings for Dick, Solven and Mesbah to take place in February.