THUNDER BAY — A Thunder Bay police officer who pleaded guilty to discreditable conduct under the Police Services Act has forfeited 12 hours of pay as a result.
Details of the decision of the adjudicator who heard the case in January were recently made public.
Constable Neal Soltys was charged in connection with his treatment of a Whitesand First Nation man he arrested for intoxication in a public place in 2014.
The incident came to light only last year, after a coroner investigating an unrelated case came upon video recorded in the Thunder Bay police station cell block.
It showed Soltys dragging Dino Kwandibens by one foot to a cell, with his head and upper body at one point hitting a Rubbermaid garbage bin, producing an audible noise. No injuries were reported.
The officer can also be heard speaking in a derogatory way, calling Kwandibens "Dino the dinosaur" and stating "sack of shit" while dragging him.
At his hearing before a retired Toronto police commander who acted as adjudicator, Soltys expressed remorse for his actions.
Kwandibens passed away two years after the incident, but Soltys wrote a letter of apology to his family, calling his behaviour disrespectful and demeaning.
The prosecutor and defence counsel jointly recommended discipline of 12 hours of docked pay and an acknowledgement from Soltys of his wrongful behaviour.
Adjudicator Peter Lennox, in accepting the recommendation, noted that defense counsel had submitted that "there was some provocation" in that Kwandibens' lack of cooperation after he had been initially cooperative during the arrest was "frustrating" to Soltys.
"I understand the frustration, but I also know that incidents like this are not unusual in the work of a front-line police officer. I appreciate defense counsel's recognition of the challenges of the job, but also find that it is the responsibility of police officers to rise above such frustrations and act with dignity and professionalism," Lennox said.
He added that Kwandibens' provocation had been passive.
"He was not insulting or abusive toward Cst. Soltys or his fellow officers in any way that I could see. Any mitigation caused by provocation on Mr. Kwandibens' part would therefore be minimal at best."
Lennox observed that, while the officer's comments were insulting and demeaning, he also attempted to communicate with Kwandibens to determine if he was alright.
"This was appropriate," he said. "If he had been able to behave that way throughout the incident, he would not have found himself before the disciplinary panel."
Lennox also referred to the prosecutor's comments about the efforts of the Thunder Bay Police Service to build bridges with the Indigenous community.
"Even though I have been given no evidence that racism or racial profiling played a role here, it is certainly contrary to the public interest when those important efforts are thwarted," he said.
The January hearing was attended by Kwandibens' daughter, Alice Kitakijick.who didn't meet her father until shortly before his death in 2016.
In an interview later, she described her feelings as complicated.
"It's devastating [how he was treated] but I don't know how I really feel about it," she said. "But knowing this is the kind of actions the police took against him..." she continued before trailing off.
