By Canadian Press

Ex-judge to review ‘insufficient’ sexual misconduct penalty for Vancouver officer

Sep 11, 2025 | 11:01 AM

A retired judge has been tasked with reviewing a police disciplinary decision that British Columbia’s police complaint commissioner found insufficient given what he describes as the “serious” nature of the officer’s sexual misconduct.

Commissioner Prabhu Rajan says he’s concerned the 10-day suspension without pay for Vancouver officer Keiron McConnell, who has since retired, “does not fit the seriousness” of his admitted sexualized misconduct.

Rajan says the public’s confidence in police and the disciplinary process is “likely to be undermined” without an independent review, and he has appointed Carol Baird Ellan, a former chief judge of the Provincial Court of B.C., to review the decision.

Baird had presided over a separate hearing called by Rajan’s office in May, during which it says McConnell admitted committing misconduct involving coworkers as well as former students when he was working as university instructor.

That hearing concluded with Ellan ordering that the police sergeant be demoted and suspended without pay for 20 days.

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The latest statement from Rajan’s office says Ellan has now been tasked with reviewing the police discipline authority’s decision handing him a lesser penalty.

“Although McConnell has retired from the (Vancouver Police Department), the conduct admitted in this case occurred while he was an active member,” it says.

“If the review on the record results in different disciplinary or corrective measures, it will be recorded on McConnell’s service record of discipline.”

Rajan’s office says the only people who were allowed to participate in the proceeding by the police discipline authority were McConnell and a “discipline representative” appointed by the authority.

Together, it says they made joint submissions proposing the 10-day suspension without pay.

Under the Police Act, neither the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner nor a former student affected by McConnell’s misconduct were permitted to participate or propose a disciplinary outcome.

“The full range of disciplinary and corrective measures, up to and including dismissal, should be independently considered given the former member’s admission of misconduct coupled with previous admissions of sexualized discreditable conduct made during a public hearing earlier this year,” Rajan says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2025.

The Canadian Press