Submitted by: Anonymous In February 2024, Angela Whitney, a former director of human resources with the Calgary Police Service (CPS), came public about her experience within the institution, saying CPS is rife with harassment, bullying and discrimination. Angela stated: "I have never seen a culture like this in my life." Angela also says she was a victim of harassment and bullying while employed at CPS. "I was body shamed. I’ve had men scream-spitting (while) yelling, just spit coming out from just screaming at me," Whitney said. "There’s so much that I experienced. -- I exited a number of individuals for things like ageism, sexism, discriminatory behaviour, bullying, harassing misuse of systems - etc. Those individuals would get exited if you were a civilian, but if you are an officer, absolutely not."
In response to Angela’s social media posts, Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld filed a lawsuit against Angela in March seeking a permanent injunction, which would prevent her from making any more comments about her former workplace. CPS claims that Angela’s social media posts are "defamatory" and that she should take her concerns to the Police Commission instead. CPS claims Angela is in breach of her resignation agreement by taking to social media revealing information about specific HR investigations. Justice Glenda Campbell granted the injunction stating "I have found that Ms. Whitney misused confidential CPS information and made disparaging comments about CPS and its personnel" and that Angela "immediately remove the breaching posts from all social media platforms".
"I implore Calgarians to demand accountability, and request our Minister of Public Safety to intervene. Full transparency is in Calgarians best interest as our tax dollars are being wasted tremendously by allowing the dysfunction to fester. Importantly, I am imploring those who had the same or similar experiences to come forward and blow the whistle. Without your voice; there will be no change, it will allow these issues to remain away from those who have the ability to enact and enforce sustainable change." - Angela Whitney’s statement to the Calgary Police
In Ontario, BC and Quebec there exists Anti-SLAPP laws, which were created to protect against strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). SLAPPs seek to intimidate and silence parties speaking, publishing, or broadcasting on issues of public concern with costly and time-consuming litigation. Police officers, and other people in positions of power, often use lawsuits to silence their critics in order to void accountability. Essentially, Anti-SLAPP laws are meant to protect a person’s Charter right to freedom of speech.
"What does anti-SLAPP legislation do? Anti-SLAPP laws were designed to allow individuals to have the lawsuit against them dismissed at a very early stage if that lawsuit qualifies as a 'SLAPP'. The idea is that defendants should not be put through the time and expense of defending a csae at trial if that case is brought for abusive purposes (e.g. to silence or intimidate a defendant) as opposed to an honest attempt by a plaintiff to try to vindicate their rights or protect their reputation. A recent CFE study found that Ontario’s anti-SLAPP law, the Protection of Public Participation Act, 2015, is the strongest in the world, matched by that of British Columbia which is modelled on Ontario’s legislation." (Centre for Free Expression)
The Centre for Free Expressions states that there is inadequate whistleblower protection in "Canada" when whistleblowers speak up and out about wrongdoing that affects the public interest, often times exposing serious misconduct, incompetence or corruption. Corruption by its nature is secretive and to expose it often requires those from within the organization or institution to speak out about it. This is not often something we see with cops, however, as they are much more interested in preserving the Blue Code of Silence - everything the thin blue line represents.
But even where Anti-SLAPP laws exist, police and policing institutions will still attempt to use the legal system to silence and legally abuse those who go against them. In 2016, Kelly Donovan was a constable working as a Use of Force Instructor for the Waterloo Regional Police Service. After witnessing abuses of power when police investigate themselves for domestic violence, she made an unprotected disclosure of wrongdoing by the chief to the police services board after learning that Ontario laws prohibited police officers from making complaints against their chief of police. The Waterloo Regional Police Service has now dragged Kelly through the courts system for 9 years and has spent almost $800,000 of tax payers dollars in doing so.
In 2013 is was found that the Toronto police had "racked up $27 million worth of settlements in civil lawsuits since 2000, including dozens for false arrest and use of force, a database obtained by the Toronto Star shows. The most common settlement causes include 66 cases of allegations of use of force, 62 claims of false arrest, and 58 allegations of negligent investigations, eight of which involved sexual assaults." (Toronto Star) In Vancouver, over $1 million was spent settling lawsuits over five years.
This is partly possible because police institutions have access to a great network of resources, including individual police officers having access to lawyers and their lawyer fees being covered by police unions and tax payer dollars.
"Large police services, like those in Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary, have budgets in the hundreds of millions, or, in the case of Toronto, the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police, over a billion. Smaller services, like Victoria and Fredericton, have budgets in the tens of millions. And all of them have lawyers." (The Conversation)
Meanwhile, those who end up on the receiving end of this form of legal abuse end up going into debt in order to defend themselves against an entire institution.
CPS continues to abuse their power by silencing their critics. Since 2022, Taylor McNallie has been sued by 3 Calgary Police officers for “defamation” after exposing their violence publicly on social media. Kevin Starblanket was granted his injunction, which included Taylor paying him $4725 in restitution, and the other 2 lawsuits remain open. Together, these lawsuits have cost Taylor $16,725 in legal fees. In the matter between Const. Kyle Peterson and Taylor McNallie, Justice Colin Feasby denied the interlocutory injunction saying "the test for granting an injunction in defamation cases is more stringent than in other civil litigation matters because it deals with a person’s right to freedom of expression". He also noted that public criticism of police comes with the role in order to promote better police conduct. For now, the post made by Taylor can stay online pending a civil trial.
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