City councillor vows to speak out on behalf of CPS officers alleging harassment

Dressed in pink, Councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart couldn’t help but draw parallels between Pink Shirt Day and what’s happening within the Calgary police force.

Colley-Urquhart, having recently resigned from the Calgary Police Commission, told 660 NEWS her hero is senior Constable Jennifer Ward.

The local politician had met with the women behind the harassment allegations facing the CPS at her home as a private citizen and felt compelled to stand up as a woman and an elected official.

She maintains she had no idea that Ward was planning to resign publicly at the Calgary Police Commission and is hoping Ward will reconsider her position.

“I contacted her right after the meeting and I begged her not to resign and to just keep an open mind and then she contacted me last week to see if I would go with her to meet with the chief and of course she called me and said ‘you didn’t want me to resign, now what are we going to do without you?'”

“Truly to me, she (Ward) is a hero. It’s taken an horrific toll on her and her family but sometimes when you have people like her who stand up, stand up to bullying – she is really an example for children big and small, adults and members of the service, even though she’s paid a price.”

Colley-Urquhart said it’s clear to her and many that this has been allowed to get too far with the threat of more than one law firm now involved.

“The risk is there. It was my concern when I first started meeting with these women over a year ago and I remember when the RCMP kept denying and denying that this was an issue with the RCMP in Canada until finally a class action lawsuit was filed and now taxpayers are on the hook for $100-million to settle that suit.”

She added, this was never supposed to go to the police commission because it was “none of their business” and she was dealing directly with the chief.

Colley-Urquhart said the complainants waited and when nothing happened they took it to the commission themselves.

“I didn’t agree with the commission’s decision on how they based their decision that I may have breached their code with four different things that they outlined, I didn’t agree with the decision they reached and I didn’t agree with the evidence they used to reach that decision because in my view it had nothing to do with them.”

“It just became an untenable situation where I thought if they were trying to hoodwink me or to try to shut me down and not be speaking about these important matters when actually Councillor Sutherland speaks to police issues all the time. The double standard – then it would be far better for me to step aside and do the things I’m doing today.”

She planned to continue speaking out on the issue and says she will be following it very closely.