NDP MLA Shannon Phillips calls the Crown’s refusal to pursue charges against the officers who searched her personal information 'quite regrettable.' Alberta's police watchdog recommended laying charges against three Lethbridge officers who used police databases to improperly access the personal information of two people, including NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, but the Crown's office has declined to prosecute, CBC News has learned.
In 2017, Phillips, the NDP's environment minister at the time, along with local conservationist Harvey Locke and some other friends were watched and photographed by Sgt. Jason Carrier and Const. Keon Woronuk as they met at a Lethbridge diner. She received more than 9,000 mostly redacted pages of documents which showed that in 2018, Phillips's name was searched eight times by five different police officers and one civilian employee.According to Ewenson's letter, ASIRT cleared all but two of the officers who searched Phillips's name.
"To have law enforcement targeting a minister because they don't like her, they don't like her politics, they don't like her party, they don't like that a woman's in charge; that's what this is about," said Phillips in a phone interview.