Publication ban lifted in Regina police chief's appeal
The panel freed the media to report the evidence in the Farooq Sheikh hearing without naming the complainant.
I was in downtown Regina this week for the appeal hearing of former Regina Police Service Chief Farooq Sheikh.
Sheikh was a British law enforcement officer with a stellar career behind him before he came to Canada, serving in B.C. and then with the Alberta Sheriffs. He was hired in Regina as an outsider brought in to shake things up, and he was out of the job roughly 16 months later after a complaint was lodged against him by a then-member of the Regina Board of Police Commissioners — effectively his boss.
On the first day, the panel imposed an interim publication ban. Three outlets objected: the Regina Leader-Post, the CBC and Rebel News. The following morning the panel loosened it, allowing us to report the evidence so long as we didn't identify the complainant.
We then heard half a day of testimony from Shawn George, a career Regina Police Service member who moved to the Public Complaints Commission after retiring and received the complaint. The complainant alleged Sheikh was behind her removal from the board. But the evidence suggested Sheikh had learned of her proximity to a fourth-party criminal investigation and wanted to discuss it with her.
We also saw texts between the two — flirty, and mostly initiated by her.
Lise Merle
Lise Merle is a media maven covering government, culture, and regional policy from the wilds of Saskatchewan. As a mother of 6 and author of bestselling children's book 'Buck the Rainbow Unicorn', she is a fierce advocate for family rights and the sworn enemy of woke.
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