Privacy breaches prompt women to demand change at Regina Police Service
Privacy breaches prompt women to demand change at Regina Police Service
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 08:01:00
Source Domain: www.cjme.com
Two recent cases involving members of the Regina Police Service, as well as the circumstances surrounding the firing of police chief Farooq Sheikh, have prompted a petition and open letter calling for reforms.
The letter, which appears on Tuesday’s Board of Police Commissioners agenda, accuses the police, courts and provincial government of failing to protect women and their privacy and failing to hand down appropriate penalties to the perpetrators.
Read more:
“Women are again left with little reason to trust the system, which adds to the already existing problem of stalking and assaults going unreported,” the letter read.
Trish Elliott, one of the letter’s authors, said she wasn’t a victim herself, but the idea arose as she and her friends talked about the high price women pay when they report violations.
“There isn’t really a mechanism for appropriate sentencing for these kinds of offenses,” Elliott said in an interview.
“We want the Ministry of Justice to take a good look at bringing in an aggravating factor that takes into account the power imbalance between police and the women that they’re stalking.”
Elliott said a review of practices and policies is also needed to hold the police chief and officers accountable.
“Women don’t want to come forward because they see what’s happening to women who do, how hard it is for them, and then how light the punishments are,” Elliott said. “So from what we hear, this is part of the culture that exists within the police service.”
One officer sentenced to time in community after pleading guilty, another charged under privacy act
Former Regina Police Service sergeant Robert Semenchuk was found to have snooped on 33 women during his 22-year career, illegally accessing police databases in an attempt to establish relationships with them.
Semenchuk was sentenced in February to two years in the community, followed by three years of probation, after pleading guilty to breach of trust and unauthorized use of…
