Kelowna mayor defends RCMP while it reviews its dismissal of 40% of sex assault cases

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran is defending the RCMP after Statistics Canada reported the police agency had dismissed as unfounded 40 per cent of sexual assault cases in 2017 and 2018 — a rate nearly triple the provincial and national average.

Despite the astonishingly high number of unfounded cases, Basran says he still believes they were properly investigated.

Statistics Canada released the new figures after a decade long hiatus, during which it worked to standardize the definition of "unfounded." 

It cautioned it had revised the definition of founded and unfounded complaints, and, that as a result, the figures reported in 2017 and 2018 might not be comparable across police services but would become more reliable over time.

Unfounded cases are sexual assault allegations that police believe did not occur.

RCMP vowed to undertake a review to discover how StatsCan came up with the new 40 per cent figure.

"I have a good relationship with our RCMP superintendent," said Basran. "So when he tells me that he believes that the due diligence [was] put into these cases … I take him at his word that that is what, in fact, is happening."

But even the RCMP say they aren't entirely sure.

"We are currently not in a position to provide specific examples of why any of these investigations were deemed unfounded," said Cpl. Meghan Foster in a news release issued late Friday afternoon, right before the long weekend.

"We're taking immediate steps to get answers," she said, announcing a review into Kelowna's aberrant statistics. 

"The team will look at each file to ensure that all investigative steps were followed and that the file was properly categorized," said Cpl. Foster.

Supt. Brent Mundle was not immediately available for comment.

"I'm certainly happy to hear that those cases will be reviewed," said Basran. "I believe that the superintendent, with the resources that he has, is doing the best job that he can."

However, Robyn Dolittle, an investigative journalist and the author of Had it Coming, a book on unfounded sexual assault rates in police forces across Canada, believes that elected officials should do more.

"We need elected officials to demand action," said  Dolittle.

"If you look at those facts objectively, there is no way those 30 cases [of 82] are false or baseless," she said.

"I would implore the Mayor to, you know, do some of the reading on this and hopefully that kind of shakes him up."

The RCMP did not give a deadline for its internal review.