What are the procedural fairness requirements for a decision to suspend an officer with pay pending an administrative investigation?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Kyle v Stewart, 2017 BCSC 522 (CanLII):
... the decisions to investigate allegations and to suspend an officer with pay pending that investigation are not final disciplinary decisions; rather they are essentially preliminary non-judicial decisions. Generally speaking, decisions of a preliminary nature will not trigger a fairness duty: Knight v. Indian Head School. ... Even in cases where preliminary decisions do trigger a duty to act fairly, such as in formal inquiries where personal reputations are at stake, the individuals implicated will not be entitled to full trial-like procedural protections during this pre-trial fact finding stage ... procedural fairness requirements in the context of a suspension with pay pending an administrative investigation are necessarily lower than those triggered by disciplinary proceedings which would follow an adverse investigation are necessarily lower than those triggered by disciplinary proceedings which would follow an adverse investigation. ... the lower procedural fairness requirement at the preliminary stage is not a license to treat people unfairly; rather it is necessary to allow investigators the chance to do their job and it is corollary to the higher standard to be applied to any subsequent proceedings ...
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