'Atrocious,' 'racist,' 'horrible' group chat at the centre of allegations against 3 B.C. RCMP officers

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing

The RCMP is seeking the dismissal of three officers who have been suspended from the Coquitlam detachment since June 2021 over allegations of racist, sexist and homophobic comments made in a group chat.

One officer, Const. Philip Dick, is accused of using "the N word" and going out of his way to try to provoke a Black shoplifting suspect into a fight so that he could use his Taser.

Dick also allegedly "posted a photo of a woman being used like a lawnmower, saying that 'this is what they're good for.'"

Another officer, Const. Ian Solven, allegedly referred to the victim in a sexual assault investigation as "a dumb Mexican c***," and bragged about his own experience Tasering unarmed Black people.

The third officer, Const. Mersad Mesbah, is accused of making fun of a new female officer's weight, calling her "disgusting" and "insinuating that the shape of her vagina was visible through her clothing."

All of these allegations, and more, are detailed in an "Information to Obtain" document – an application police officers submit to the courts when seeking approval for a search warrant – filed by a member of the Coquitlam detachment's professional standards unit.

The document sought authorization to search a fourth officer's phone for records of a group chat for members assigned to work in the City of Port Coquitlam. The private chat group began 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 launched against Dick, Solven and Mesbah in 2021. Sodhi consented to the search.

'That's just the way it is'

The Information to Obtain document indicates Sodhi was invited to join the group in March 2021 and found it "atrocious," "racist" and "horrible."

"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 reads. "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 "not being a team player," and told to rejoin it because it was "used for operational purposes and he needed to be a part of it," according to the document.

The document also describes Sodhi's recollections of interactions that occurred outside the group chat, including explanations from Dick – who trained Sodhi when he was a new recruit – about the insults and coarse language members used with each other.

Dick allegedly told Sodhi the group was "close knit" and liked "to chirp each other," then said, "You'd better be cool because that's just the way it is."

The document suggests the insults that were directed at Sodhi were typically either about his race or his intelligence.

Solven is accused of calling Sodhi "a useless piece of s***" who is "not going to make it" in the force.

Mesbah allegedly told Sodhi, "Look at all your cousins," in reference to South Asian suspects in crime bulletins.

"They're all gang members," Mesbah allegedly said.

'Are you a cool brown guy?'

The document also alleges that Dick made fun of Sodhi during the training period, confronting Sodhi on his second day of work to ask about a letter he wrote as part of the process of getting posted 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 centre where he could help at-risk youth who lacked role models.

"Are you a cool brown guy or a Surrey brown guy?" Dick allegedly asked, according to the Information to Obtain.

"Because in that letter, you're whiny, like 'ooh, I want to help brown people.'"

Dick is accused in the document of making numerous references to "brown people," describing a fellow RCMP officer on multiple occasions as a "turban twister," and describing a different unit of the Coquitlam detachment as "like the Brothers Keepers" gang.

"Just a bunch of, like, brown losers, and there's, like, a Black guy in there," he's accused of saying.

At one point, the document indicates, Sodhi told Dick his remarks were "kind of racist," to which Dick allegedly replied:

"Oh no, no, I'm not racist. It's just the bad ones I don't like."

He also allegedly said: "We're the police. They're against us. It's us against (them)."

Officers' Charter rights

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

Part of the delay, according to a recent provincial court decision, was due to the RCMP's failure to file a "Report to a Justice" regarding the seizure that resulted from the search of Sodhi's phone authorized in response to the Information to Obtain. 

The accused officers filed an application with the RCMP's Conduct Board in November of last year arguing that the seized data should be excluded from their Code of Conduct Hearing, on the basis that the RCMP had not followed its policy and submitted the required report as soon as possible after the search.

According to the court decision, the investigating officer failed to submit the report because "it had slipped his mind." The report was eventually filed 27 months late.

The RCMP Conduct Board found that this failure violated the accused officers' right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure under Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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

Provincial court Judge Robin McQuillan similarly ruled that the seized data was required for the conduct board's proceedings and ordered it detained until those proceedings are concluded.

McQuillan's decision notes the "problematic" nature of the RCMP's failure to follow its policy, but concludes that the conduct board is the body that should determine what the consequences to that failure, if any, should be.

The conduct board's schedule indicates hearings for Dick, Solven and Mesbah will be held in February.