Officer's 'racist' email made public for 1st time

An email written by an Edmonton police officer, which has beendescribed as racist for its remarks about aboriginal people, was made public for the first time Monday during a hearing held by the province's Law Enforcement Review Board.

The 2002 emailtitled: "Mr. Socko's Ten Principals of Downtown Policing," lists 10 points, with most targeting aboriginal people.

The points include a suggestion that the police van used to transport suspects "should always be referred to as the Mobile Native Friendship Center" as well as the statement, "An 'Aboriginal' is actually just an Indian."

When police management became aware of the email in 2005, former acting police chief Daryl da Costa described its contents as "racist, discriminatory and disgusting" but refused to release the document itself, saying he didn't want to re-victimize aboriginal people.

Edmonton police Const. Scott Carter admitted to writing the email, which was distributed among officers at the downtown police station over the course of several years. In 2005, Carter was given an official warning for insubordination and discreditable conduct, which remained on his file for three years.

The LERB is now looking at how police handled the investigation into the email. The hearing is expected to last all week.

Testifying at the hearing Monday, Carter said the email was meant to be satirical not hurtful, and that he wrote itinresponse to public criticism directed towards officers who worked in the downtown division.

Carter described "Mr. Socko" as a profane, belligerent, brainless puppet from the wrestling world. In hindsight, he said he understood why people might have misinterpretedhis comments.

Public has right to see email: lawyers' association

The Criminal Trial Lawyers' Association believes the public has a right to see the email and launched the appeal with the LERB to get it released publicly.

"It's shocking," lawyer and association member Tom Engel said. "Some of the things that are said in there are shocking and it's shocking that there would be that kind of attitude."

Lewis Cardinal, the co-chair of the Aboriginal Commission on Human Rights and Justice,first saw the email a couple of years ago.

"When I saw it, I thought that's a pretty insensitive and outright racist ... email," he said.

Carter apologized to aboriginal leaders at a meeting in April 2007. Cardinal and the others at the meeting accepted Carter's apology, because he expressed remorse. However, Cardinal believes that racism still exists within the Edmonton police force.