EDMONTON- The Edmonton Police Association is demanding that an Alberta lawyer be suspended, after he was charged for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs into the Edmonton Remand Centre.
Police say 31-year-old Justin Sidhu went to visit a client at the institution on September 19, and brought with him a package he says contained documents related to his client’s case.
Officers say they searched the package and found six grams of methamphetamine inside.
As a result, the EPA is calling on the Law Society of Alberta to suspend Sidhu from practicing law until the matter is resolved.
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“This is clearly a serious breech of ethics on the part of Mr. Sidhu. His alleged actions clearly put his client, ERC (Edmonton Remand Centre) staff as well as other inmates of this institution in danger. The illegal trafficking of drugs in institutions is an extremely serious problem,” read a letter to the society from EPA President Tony Simioni and EPA Treasurer Bill Clark.
“The public has the right to be reassured that a defense lawyer is not using his/her privileged status as a lawyer to commit crimes or to wilfully be blind to the commission of crimes.”
The EPA is also calling on the Law Society of Alberta to conduct a thorough, objective and open investigation into the matter.
“Their demands and their consistent calls for a public disciplinary process for police officers, we’ll be watching this very interestingly and very closely to see just how public this investigation is, how public this hearing may be,” Simioni said. “And it’s of note to us that this lawyer is still practicing law in the City of Edmonton; if that was a police officer, they would be suspended immediately without pay and they would be calling for that.”
Sidhu has been charged with trafficking a controlled substance. Police say the amount of methamphetamine had an ‘institutional price’ of $6,000.
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