The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner will not rubber stamp the findings of a Police Act disciplinary hearing into the conduct of an off-duty West Vancouver police constable.
Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe says it is in the public interest to hold a hearing into the Jan. 21, 2009 conduct of Const. Griffin Gillan.
Among other things, the hearing will examine if Gillan's criminal assault conviction for attacking a newspaper delivery man in downtown Vancouver makes him unfit to carry a badge or discredits the reputation of the West Vancouver Police department.
Retired B.C. Supreme Court judge Harry Boyle has been appointed to oversee the hearing, although a date has not yet been set.
Gillan has already served a 21-day sentence in the community and six months' probation after being convicted in provincial court of the assault on Firoz Khan.
A disciplinary hearing conducted last fall by Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich ordered Gillan reduced to a probationary constable and suspended without pay for 10 days, but those findings were not official until reviewed by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.