Privacy advocates demand action following multiple trust breaches by Regina police officers

Advocates rallied outside Regina police headquarters, calling for an independent review of multiple privacy breaches. Sierra D’Souza Butts reports.

Advocates rallied outside of Regina’s police headquarters demanding “greater justice” in relation to multiple privacy breaches involving local officers.

Through an open letter and petition presented to the Regina Board of Police Commissioners, a group of concerned residents are calling for an independent review of the Regina Police Service (RPS) - following three separate cases of breaches of trust, privacy, and inappropriate communications in recent years.

“It’s not fair to the women who have been victimized by this … I’ve met some of the victims, it is lifelong trauma,” said Trish Elliott, one advocate behind the open letter.

“It has turned their lives upside down, these breaches, absolutely upside down.”

The demand for action comes shortly after RPS Const. Clinton Duquette was charged under the province’s privacy act. The charge stemmed from repeated snooping incidents over the span of three years.

• Regina police officer charged under privacy act for snooping incidents

Following the investigation, Duquette faced a one-day suspension, participation in mandatory police ethics and accountability training, further access and privacy training, as well as random audits for a minimum of two years.

However, advocates say the disciplinary measures implemented were simply not enough.

“We came with a specific ask for an independent inquiry into all of this which we did not get any response on, any action on,” Elliott told reporters on Tuesday.

“These are serious offences where people are being victimized by the Regina Police Service members. This is not to cast judgment on all RPS officers,” added Andrew Stevens, another advocate.

On May 14, Duquette was charged by RPS under The Local Authority Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (LAFOIP) following a recommendation from Saskatchewan’s Attorney General.

“The Police Act discipline has all been concluded. I don’t have an ability as a chief to go back and reopen that,” explained RPS Chief Lorilee Davies when speaking to reporters on Tuesday.

“That would be, I think, similar to if you got a fine for speeding and then going back later and saying ‘Actually I’m going to increase that.’ From a process perspective, that can’t happen.”

With Duquette scheduled to appear in Regina Provincial Court next month, Davies added the service will “wait to see” what the outcome of the case is before taking any additional measures.

As for any new allegation of a privacy breach, Davies said it will automatically be sent to the Crown for review.

“We’ve all been notified that these cases need to be taken very seriously, and that accessing information for not bonafide reasons will not be tolerated,” she said.

String of ‘abusive behaviour’ at RPS

Prior to the Regina Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Elliott read victim impact statements from women who were victims of the privacy breaches committed by Duquette and Robert Semenchuck, another RPS officer.

In November 2025, Semenchuck pleaded guilty to one count of breach of trust and unauthorized use of a computer during his time with the force.

Through a joint sentencing submission, Semenchuck was ordered by the court to spend six months on house arrest, with the remainder of his conditional sentence being served in the community. He is also required to spend three years on probation once his sentence is completed.

• ’33 women deserve more’: Former police officer will not go to prison for using internal database to pursue victims

“These extra steps women have had to take to hold police officers accountable for accessing private information for personal use could be eliminated if there were harsher sentencing options for privacy breaches and unauthorized surveillance,” stated Kerry Benjoe, one of the 33 victims affected by Semenchuck’s privacy breaches.

“Clearly, the existing training and punishment is doing very little to deter the illicit activities by the very people sworn to serve and protect the public.”

The third incident referenced in the open letter relates to the inappropriate communications by former police chief Farooq Sheikh, who was terminated with cause last fall.

• Regina police chief Farooq Sheikh terminated with cause following investigation

Police board approves next steps

At its Tuesday meeting, the Board of Police Commissioners approved determining its next steps related to the open letter and the petition brought forward by the group of advocates.

“The chief and I discussed about getting this on the agenda to have a discussion, to invite folks in to make sure that we hear from the community, from folks that were impacted with some of the things that have happened,” Mayor Chad Bachynski told reporters.

“To hear the information and just iterate in public what we are doing today, which is implementing a number of the recommendations that were brought forward as a result of some of the investigations.”

The board said its focus is to implement a number of actions over a period of time to build public trust.

“It was a very important day and meaningful to hear from those folks, to talk about the impacts and really highlight why we have to always continuously be looking at our service and how we maintain and continue to build that public trust in the community,” Bachynski said.

Of the nine recommendations outlined in the privacy commissioner’s report relating to Duquette, eight have already been or are in the process of being enacted.

The one recommendation that was not implemented was permanently revoking Duquette’s access to the database, an impossible request in this case, according to Chief Davies.

“I’m guided by the Police Act when it comes to discipline … there’s been case law in other cases [where] the discipline needs to be remedial in nature first,” she explained. “If I had an instance where someone had never had an offence before, something happened and I said, ‘Okay, you’re fired.’ I would guarantee you that on appeal that person would be reinstated.”

She added there are a number of measures a police chief has to consider when determining what “appropriate discipline is.”

Davies added the service is working towards rebuilding trust with residents.

“In terms of access and privacy, obviously we take that very seriously. The public entrusts us with a lot of personal and sensitive information, and we need to uphold that with the most security as possible,” she said, pointing out the number of security measures in place for officers who have access to the service’s database.

Regardless, the advocates say they will continue demanding for justice and police accountability.

“We can’t always have the Regina police investigating the Regina police. The buck stops with our civilian oversight board,” said Elliott.

“That board has sole responsibility for providing police services here in the city and they also have the authority to make rules and regulations as they deem fit.”

With files from Caitlin Brezinski and Donovan Maess