The whistleblower who sparked a police conduct investigation into three officers accused of participating in racist group chats has admitted to sending offensive messages of his own to fit in.
During cross-examination on Tuesday, defence lawyers zeroed in on Const. Sam Sodhi's contributions to group chats at the centre of the police misconduct investigation against officers Philip Dick, Ian Solven and Mersad Mesbah, who were working in the Coquitlam detachment.
The police conduct board was presented message exchanges between Sodhi and Dick in which Sodhi referred to himself as "Simran Singh Baljinder Preet," with defence lawyers suggesting he was mocking a Punjabi name.
Other messages included jokes about Punjabi accents and Sodhi referencing that he was "white-washed."
During his cross-examination, Sodhi said he seldom sent messages like that, but when he did, it was only because he felt the pressure to fit in.
Coquitlam RCMP station is pictured in Coquitlam, British Columbia on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
"I'm trying to fit in a very toxic environment, and I'm degrading myself to do that," he said. "The reason I came forward was because I could not take this anymore."
"I know why I did it. I'm not a racist," he added. "That is wrong what I did, but what these people did was far worse."
Sodhi's complaints about his experiences working for the Coquitlam RCMP sparked an internal investigation that reviewed more than 600,000 messages posted to the police...
In This Article: WBA +0.78% Walgreens agreed to pay the United States $300M, plus interest at a rate of 4.00% per annum accruing from October 20, 2024, of which $150M shall constitute restitutio...