B.C. police officer fired after calling in sick 25 times to coach hockey
An officer from the West Vancouver Police Department was dismissed for repeatedly calling in sick and then going to coach hockey instead.
The incident is one of two hockey-related complaints about B.C. police officers that were investigated by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner and detailed in its 2021 annual report.
“It was reported that the (West Vancouver Police Department) member called in sick for two shifts in a row. The member was then seen coaching a hockey game during the second shift for which he had called in sick,” reads the report.
The department initiated an internal investigation and discovered that the officer had called in sick 25 times over a period of four years (2015-2019) in order to go and coach hockey instead.
"I wasn't surprised,” said Kash Heed, former chief of police in West Vancouver.
“There's a culture of entitlement in that department,” Heed said. “(It’s) something that I had to deal with in 2007 where we had several members that were abusing the system … I'm glad that finally somebody had the integrity to report this individual who was abusing the sick policy."
Not only did he coach on days when he had called in sick, he denied it to his supervisor, says the OPCC.
The officer was fired from his position for deceit and discreditable conduct. Disciplinary officials from the West Vancouver department noted that his behaviour “would fall below the public’s expectations of a municipal police officer.” They also noted that employers should be able to expect that employees “not flagrantly abuse their sick time.”
That’s a sentiment shared by Debby Carreau, founder and CEO of Inspired HR, a West-Vancouver-based consulting firm.
"If you're ever thinking about doing something like this, never assume it's going to be private,” she said. “It's probably going to follow you in your career as you move along."
The officer resigned from his position before he was fired. But according to the OPCC, his employment records were amended to reflect the dismissal.
In a second hockey-related incident, the OPCC report says a Delta Police Department officer verbally abused a minor league hockey referee and then refused to leave the ice at a December 2019 game.
“The (off-duty Delta police) member verbally abused the on-ice official and projected himself in an unprofessional manner to other spectators, coaches, and players,” reads the report.
The report says he engaged in a “verbal altercation” with parents of other players, and refused to immediately obey the referee’s request that he leave the ice rink.
Many people witnessed the officer’s behaviour and somebody notified the department.
As a result, he was given a “verbal reprimand” for behaving in a way that “discredits the department." Details of the disciplinary process, shared in the OPCC document, say that the officer accepted full responsibility and “made no excuses for his actions.” He also “authored unsolicited apology letters.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.