REGINA, Sask. — Hearings into Farooq Sheikh’s appeal of his dismissal for cause as Regina police chief have wrapped up at the Hilton DoubleTree in Regina.
Lawyers representing Sheikh and the Regina Board of Police Commissioners made their final arguments to the three-member Saskatchewan Police Commission panel on Wednesday, although the indication is that counsel will also be making written submissions to the panel by next Monday.
After that, the panel will consider its decision, which lawyers indicate is not likely to come down for another couple of months.
During his submission, Mitchell Holash, representing the Regina Board of Police Commissioners, tried to make his case that the board was justified in terminating Sheikh for cause.
In speaking to reporters, Holash said they believe that the evidence “establishes conduct of a chief of police that fell below the standard and quality of care and responsibility that chief of police in the City of Regina should demonstrate. And so we feel that amounts to just cause for dismissal. That's our argument.”
During his closing submission, Holash particularly pointed to Sheikh’s text messaging of the complainant during a private board of police commissioners meeting that she was part of on Dec. 12, 2024.
He also pointed to Sheikh’s phone call to the complainant on Feb. 26, in which he asked her to delete text messages — a phone call that took place while an active criminal investigation was underway into someone close to the complainant.
Holash pointed to case law from the Supreme Court where the test is “can the relationship survive the conduct?” to make the case that the conduct fell below the legal standard.
In speaking to reporters, Holash pointed to the conduct having “breached trust — breached the legal decision of the board to meet privately on an employment issue that was intruded upon — and given that there's values that Chief of Police have to uphold in terms of investigative professionalism and effectiveness that were violated by the conduct in this case, arising out of some bad decisions that arose out of an odd relationship with one of the commissioners.”
There has been much focus during the hearings on the relationship that Sheikh had with the complainant, whose name is covered by a publication ban. Those included “flirty” banter and some embarrassing texts back and forth between the two.
Holash made the point that it was really the conduct that arose from that relationship that was at issue here.
“It seemed that this odd relationship motivated some conduct, and of course, Mr. Sheikh's counsel in argument asked the board to cut him a little bit of slack because the relationship was maybe childish,” Holash said.
“It brought up some embarrassing points. There was a distinction between privacy and concealment during an investigation, and those are distinctions that we don't want in the Regina Police Service as they exercise and perform the values that are incumbent on them.”
Sheikh’s counsel, Brian Pfefferle, told reporters that he took the position that while Sheikh “didn't act in the way he wished he would have in hindsight,” “there was nothing that reached the level of misconduct here.”
“This is somebody who was acting in good faith,” Pfefferle said, saying he had “taken ownership for a relationship that sort of spawned into something that he didn't expect and didn't desire.”
“Ultimately, this led to some discussions that occurred and those discussions, largely in our submission, were taken out of context. And if taken at face value and with the understanding of the background, there's really no misconduct here is our position. And again, the Chief isn't trying to suggest that he would do this again. He's just saying that this was from a place of good faith, that he believed greatly that this member of the board was someone who was a valued member of the board, that was someone of integrity.”
Pfefferle said their hope is that “this hearing, as embarrassing as it was, did lead to some light being shed on the idea that the chief here was acting in good faith, that he believed that this person was a good person, that this wasn't some sort of deep underground conspiracy, that this was in any way malicious or based off what we think is misconduct. We'd suggest it's ill-advised, and in hindsight, sometimes you find out things are ill-advised and that's really what our position is here.”
Pfefferle also told reporters that at the time Sheikh “acted in a way that he thought was appropriate and that's really what should matter to this community, is that he wasn't acting in any way that was attempting to obstruct the course of justice or defeat any type of investigation.”
As for what potential remedy could come for Sheikh should he win his appeal, Pfefferle admitted that getting his job back is probably not likely.
“Put it this way, he loved being in Regina, he loved being chief of police, he took the responsibility very seriously, he would have loved to continue in that role,” Pfefferle said.
“Regina now has a chief of police, he's not planning on dethroning the current chief and upsetting it. He wants what's best for the community and that probably wouldn't be what's best for the community at this stage.”
Pfefferle said Sheikh “just wants to be treated fairly pursuant to the contract and if they decide he's not dismissed with cause, of course there's a severance condition in there and that's what he'll be looking to deal with.”
As for the hearing and whether Sheikh had been able to share his side of the story, Pfefferle said, “Yeah, for sure. Not that this is a cathartic process for anybody, it's quite stressful.”
Pfefferle said it was important for Sheikh to share his views, pointing to online forums that were “saying all sorts of crazy things about him being involved in covering up criminal investigations and these sorts of things.”
“That just isn't the case, and that hopefully lends some, I guess, a level of comfort to the community that this was something that wasn't as scandalous or nefarious as many people were suggesting.”
