Calls grow for Newfoundland police to reckon with sexual assault claims, culture

As a Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officerheads to jail for sexual assault, calls are growing for the force toreckon with mounting allegations against its officersand to commit tochanging its culture.

"The fact that there have been so many women who have comeforward suggests that there's a culture problem in the RNCa deep,cultural problem," said Lise Gotell, a University of Albertaprofessor who studies gender and law.

"If these allegations aretrue, I think that the RNC needs to acknowledge that there is aproblem, they need to apologize, and they need to engage in fairlyfundamental reform."

Every police force in the country should be paying attention tothe situation unfolding within Newfoundland and Labrador'sprovincial police force, Gotell said.

RNC Const. Carl Douglas Snelgrove is back behind bars after theprovince's Court of Appeal this week upheld his 2021 conviction forsexual assault. Snelgrove was sentenced to four years for raping ayoung woman in her living room while on duty in 2014.

Shortly after his conviction, St. John's lawyer Lynn Mooreannounced she had been approached by several women who said they,too, had allegedly been sexually assaulted by members of the force,at least one of whom is not Snelgrove. She has since filed twolawsuits on behalf of eight of those women. It's not clear exactlyhow many officers are accused, because most of the women did notknow their alleged assailants and were only able to providedescriptions, Moore has said.

Moore said Wednesday there are more lawsuits to come.So far, she said, there has been a "lack of openness and transparency"about how the RNC is handling the accumulating allegations "whichI think is very bad for a police force, especially a police forcethat is facing allegations of very serious breaches."

Like Gotell, Moore said she would like the provincial police toacknowledge they have a problem and apologize.

"I think it would be very important to implement screeningprocesses so that they can weed out misogynists at the beginning,and also to conduct a training on the patriarchy and misogyny andsexism," Moore said. "That's the source of the problem, and that'swhat needs to be attacked."

RNC Const. James Cadigan has said that since Snelgrove was firsttried in 2017, the force has not offered its members any trainingabout consent, sexual assault or abuse of power, which became a keypoint in the case. An access-to-information request for anycommunication or notices of training involving sexual assault,consent, abuse of power or trust returned no results. The requestcovered early 2017 to late 2022.

The RNC did not return a request for comment sent Thursday.

I think what we really need is a significant overhaul ofpolicy, of operations, of their culture.- Bridget Clarke

A response to a separate information request said the forcelaunched six investigations between 2017 and 2021 into sexualassault allegations against its members. The investigations includedinternal and external probes, and those prompted by publiccomplaints. It's unclear how many officers were the subject ofcomplaints.

In August, the province's police watchdog released a report that saidit had investigated six potential incidents of sexual assaultor misconduct by at least one Royal Newfoundland Constabularyofficer, adding that five of those incidents had already beeninvestigated by the RNC. The report said the police force let thatofficer retire as an "informal resolution" to a sexual assaultcomplaint that the watchdog said involved a potentially criminaloffence.

Bridget Clarke of the St. John's Status of Women Council said shebelieves the force has systemic issues with misogyny and abuse ofpower.

"I think what we really need is a significant overhaul ofpolicy, of operations, of their culture, and a commitment to doingthat in a meaningful way," she said in a recent interview.

Gotell noted that communities all over Canada are calling forexaminations of misogyny in policing, adding that a recommendationby a St. John's-based Indigenous group First Voice to establish a civilian-led oversight board in the province is a basic steppolice and governments could take to address those calls.

She questioned whether the public could have confidence in policeofficers investigating other police officers in matters of sexualmisconduct. "I'm not sure that I would advise any woman who hasexperienced police misconduct, particularly of a sexual nature, tomake a complaint to the police."

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