On Friday, February 13, Marijuana Party activist Tim Felger lodged a series of complaints against City of Abbotsford officials and Abbotsford Police Department (APD) employees relating to Abbotsford’s infamous Chicken Manure Incident.
These allegations were made five days before, and are separate from, the corruption and misconduct charges announced by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, February 18.
Felger has a long history of conflict with and complaints against the City, the APD and the Abbotsford Downtown Business Association (ADBA). The activist owned and operated the Da Kine offices of the Marijuana Party on Essendene Avenue in downtown Abbotsford until he was arrested, S.W.A.T. team style, for allegedly selling marijuana to a minor. He was charged with trafficking and possession of marijuana.
Citing the marijuana charges, the City of Abbotsford cancelled Felger’s business licence.
Those charges were thrown out along with a number of other charges when the BC Supreme Court reviewed the manner in which the APD conducted itself and determined a lack of evidence used in searching Felger’s premises. The BC Court of Appeal ruled Felger should have a new trial after the crown appealed the decision to throw out the charges.
Felger has also had charges against him heard by the Supreme Court of Canada; an investigation into the APD conducted by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), and has repeatedly accused the APD of misconduct.
Felger has always maintained that he was run out of town for his political views and that the ADBA, the City and the APD colluded and misused their positions, and the law, in order to achieve ends which, according to Felger, were anything but legal.
These latest charges relate to the spreading of chicken feces on a homeless camp across the street from the Salvation Army in 2013.
Chicken Manure Incident
Felger alleges that City staff and employees of the APD conspired to commit an unlawful act because, he alleges, they knew, or ought to have known, that “Chicken Manure most likely contained potential pathogenic organisms such as E coli and salmonella and could have a negative health impact and even be a danger to life or deadly.”
He further alleges that the APD officers, knowing that an illegal act had occurred, failed to properly investigate and entered into a “‘Conspiracy of Silence’ [b]y reason of being privy of an Intention held in common with each other to carry out an UNLAWFUL purpose, namely they violated the Police Act and the employee standard of conduct and violated the privacy act, because their records were not timely or accurate when they failed to collect evidence, failed to investigate, investigated improperly, conducted an improper investigation, and or conducted an investigation that would not produce an arrest …”
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The accusations were filed Friday afternoon, February 13 and a court date has been set for May 27 at 1:30 pm in Abbotsford to hear the charges. The court records and the accusations are sealed. None of the accusations has been proven in a court of law.
Felger entered the charges five days before the corruption and misconduct charges announced by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, February 18.