Public hearing for VPD sergeant accused of sexual misconduct

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) has convened a public hearing for the first time into allegations of sexual misconduct against a Vancouver police officer who also worked as a lecturer at post-secondary educational institutions.

The office says the allegations against Sergeant Keiron McConnell relate to his conduct toward seven women, including police officers and former students, while he was a lecturer at Royal Roads and Kwantlen Polytechnic universities.

In a statement, the commissioner said he had concluded that the nature of the allegations warranted an initial public hearing by the office, after changes in the law had paved the way for such an investigation earlier in the police disciplinary process.

According to the OPCC, the Commissioner found that exploiting a power imbalance for sexual purposes not only harms those directly affected, but also has a negative impact on the integrity of police work and public trust in the police.

The allegations against McConnell, who has been a Vancouver police officer for 33 years, are said to be unproven. McConnell declined to comment when asked by CBC News.

The office said it had appointed retired provincial judge Carol Baird Ellan to preside over the hearing and determine whether McConnell was guilty of misconduct.

The dates of the hearings have yet to be confirmed, but the OPCC says it will meet at the earliest possible opportunity and the dates will be announced on its website.

It is said that this is the first public hearing since changes to the law allowed the authority to schedule a public hearing earlier in the police disciplinary process.

Investigation ordered in April 2022

A hearing notice detailing the allegations said the investigation was launched after a photo of McConnell was posted on social media in late December 2021.

The statement said “unknown individuals” commented on the post calling McConnell a “sexual predator,” and the following month a police officer forwarded Facebook messages from McConnell to the VPD’s Professional Standards Division.

The officer said the 2018 messages “started out friendly but then evolved into something she found inappropriate and sexual,” the statement said.

It says that she did not report it at the time because of McConnell’s “rank and status” and believed that there would be consequences for her at the VPD.

The Commissioner ordered an investigation in April 2022 and heard testimony from three of McConnell’s former students at Royal Roads University, who alleged that he sent them inappropriate or sexual electronic messages while he was a student between 2015 and 2017.

One of the defendants said McConnell invited students for a drink in November 2016, but she became “increasingly uncomfortable” with his behavior in her presence, the statement said.

She said that after she decided to leave, McConnell followed her into a taxi without being asked and tried to kiss her after preventing her from getting out of the vehicle, the statement said.

Another student claims she felt uncomfortable after receiving text messages from him on her personal cell phone and did not know where he got her number.

A third student claimed that McConnell sent her Facebook messages in 2018 that “contained euphemisms for sexual terms.”

The student was afraid that McConnell would “speak negatively about her” to police recruiters if she did not respond to his messages, and she “ultimately changed her mind about becoming a police officer, which she attributed to her experiences with Sergeant McConnell,” the statement said.

The commissioner’s office also heard from a Kwantlen Polytechnic University student who alleged that McConnell sent her “sexually inappropriate messages” in 2017 and 2018.

After she graduated, McConnell allegedly sent her a message that she “interpreted as him soliciting her to perform sexual acts,” the statement said.

The statement said the office also heard from two lower-ranking female police officers who worked with McConnell.

One claimed he made “sexualized comments” both in person and in text messages between 2015 and 2018.

The other claimed that he had made “repeated sexualized and inappropriate comments” to her in nightly social media messages, including “fantasies about her engaging in sexual acts with him at his desk.”

The statement said that during the investigation, McConnell admitted to sending some messages, but that they were intended to be confidential and “exchanged between consenting adults.”

“McConnell insisted that he would have stopped if the recipients of these messages had told him to stop,” the statement said. He also denied having behaved dishonorably.

In an email to CBC News, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) spokesman David Connop Price confirmed that McConnell is a lecturer at the university.

He said the school could not provide further information due to data protection laws, adding that KPU is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful learning and working environment.

Royal Roads University did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from CBC News.