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The wrongful termination appeal of former Regina Police Chief Farooq Sheikh took a dramatic turn on day two of hearings, as the Public Complaints Commission's own lead investigator appeared to fold under cross-examination, and a lengthy recorded interview with Sheikh himself laid bare the private and professional relationship at the centre of his firing.

The morning session saw PCC investigator Shawn George, a retired Regina police officer, walk the tribunal through his findings against Sheikh, which substantiated a discreditable conduct complaint brought by a female former member of the Regina Board of Police Commissioners — Sheikh's own boss at the time.

George's report had cleared Sheikh of a separate corrupt-practice allegation tied to an administrative contract error, but the discreditable conduct finding became the foundation for the police union, the newly reconstituted board, and the city's decision to terminate him.

That foundation started to crack after lunch.

Defence attorneys Brian Pfefferle and Scott Hopley zeroed in on a detail that punctured the credibility of George's report: his finding that Sheikh had referred to himself as "Daddy Chief" in messages with the complainant.

Under questioning, George pigeonholed into acknowledging the nickname Daddy Chief hadn't come from Sheikh at all. It came from a friend of the complainant, caught on audio joking about the chief's car being roomy enough for "car seats" after driving the group to a casino.

Pfefferle and Hopley also picked apart George's account of an alleged incident where the complainant claimed Sheikh had rubbed her leg during a December 2024 police board meeting, evidence from two other board members present, including a city councillor and the board's vice-chair, indicated the two had been seated at opposite ends of the table.

Just when the defence was getting their teeth into the matter, George grew visibly uncomfortable, checked his watch, and abruptly left the hearing prompting police union lawyer Mitchell Holash to request an adjournment for the day.

Sheikh's team has separately noted that Sheikh had asked for a different investigator, citing George's history with the Regina Police Service, Police Union as a conflict of interest, and that request was denied.

The hearing then turned to a lengthy recorded interview between Sheikh and an investigator from the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), in which Sheikh laid out his version of events. Sheikh told the SIRT investigator he never pursued a romantic relationship with the complainant and maintained the complaint against him was retaliatory, coming shortly after the police board removed her from her position.

He described a Christmas gift exchange in which the complainant gave him tequila, a Paris ornament, and a custom mug referencing their first meeting - followed, he said, by a brief kiss he did not initiate.

Weeks later, he says, she sent him an unsolicited bikini photo from a trip to the Dominican Republic, and the two had a WhatsApp call, which investigators have not been able to recover — during which he told her the contact needed to stop.

Sheikh told the SIRT investigator that any messages he had asked her to delete were pertained only to professionally inappropriate exchanges, not to a separate, publication-banned criminal matter involving a fourth party connected to The Complainant .

The Complainant's identity and the fourth-party matter remain under a publication ban, which Rebel News is actively challenging, arguing the public has a right to know how it intersects with the conduct of a sitting police chief and the board that oversees him.

Coverage of the hearing continues, including an upcoming report starring Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski.