A Labrador man has lost his bid for a long-sought public hearing about his detainment by police in 2015 at a mental health hospital for a post he made on social media.
A ruling dated Thursday by an adjudicator with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary’s Public Complaints Commission says a public hearing would be “desirable,” but Andrew Abbass did not file his complaint soon enough against retired Sgt. Tim Buckle.
Abbass said in an interview that he is frustrated by chief adjudicator John Whalen’s conclusion, but he hopes there will be an appeal.
Whalen’s decision says Abbass was detained by members of the force in April 2015 and kept for six days at a hospital, allegedly because of tweets he wrote in response to the fatal shooting by police of Donald Dunphy that month in St. Mary’s Bay, N.L.
I mean, he seems like an unwell person who is tweeting death threats at a politician, so being detained and placed on a psych hold isn’t completely out of the question.
The issue is that he wasn’t charged with anything. If they charged him with uttering threats during this process, there likely wouldn’t be an issue with how he was detained.