KP GUARD WHO SOLD COCAINE WON'T GET JOB BACK

A Kingston Penitentiary guard fired for selling cocaine will not get his
job back.

Jamie Renaud's dismissal has been upheld by the tribunal that reviews
public service grievances. Renaud was fired last May for selling drugs to
other guards.

Tribunal chairman Joe Potter, who last week reinstated a fired guard who
had been snared by the same two-year undercover police probe of corruption
at the prison, found that in this case the Correctional Service of Canada
was justified in dismissing the employee.

"I believe that trafficking in drugs by a correctional officer is a very
serious act of misconduct and that termination of employment is an
appropriate disciplinary response to such an act of misconduct in the
absence of compelling mitigating factors," wrote Potter in a 12-page
decision made public yesterday.

Renaud, 29, is a guard with less than three years' service. Potter found
that he had sold a gram of cocaine to a fellow guard and that the offence
was serious enough to warrant firing, the two issues before him.

"I believe the bond of trust between the grievor and his employer has
indeed been broken in this situation and I can find no reason to modify the
penalty, nor indeed was any offered at the hearing," he wrote.

Renaud's lawyer, Angus MacLeod, called parts of the decision "quite
alarming," although he said he had not yet been given instructions to apply
for a judicial review of the ruling. Renaud, who has been suspended without
pay, could not be reached for comment yesterday but his lawyer described
him as being "puzzled and disappointed" by the ruling.

Corrections spokeswoman Diane Russon said yesterday the government had no
objections to Potter's findings.

"We are reviewing the document but we are satisfied with the outcome," she
said.

The case, which was heard in Kingston in February, boiled down to the
credibility of either side's witnesses. The chief witness against Renaud
was Rick Noble, a fellow guard who admitted to being an alcoholic and drug
addict.

"This is a termination case where, like an onion, when all the layers are
peeled away, we are left with a core issue," Potter explained. "In this
instance, am I to believe Mr. Noble or Mr. Renaud? That is, in my view, the
real case here."

Noble is on stress leave suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after
former guards put out a contract to have inmates attack him and fellow
guards harassed and threatened him.

As in the previous case, Potter said that a "rat code" among guards was
used to try and stop guards from testifying against their fellow
correctional officers.

Then-warden Monty Bourke testified that the code stonewalled investigations
at the prison and forced him to authorize a police investigation in 1998.

Noble testified that other guards "put him on the dummy" and would not
speak to him after they found out he had co-operated with the police
investigation that saw eight guards fired and 40 warned about inappropriate
conduct.

Potter wrote that Noble was aware he was breaching the rat code when he
talked to police and knew there would be consequences. Noble testified that
he pulled his car over to the side of the road and cried after being
interviewed by police as he knew other guards would turn on him.

Potter said that awareness of the consequences gave his admission credibility.

"Mr. Noble may be lying to save himself ... but this was at great personal
expense," Potter concluded.

"Mr. Noble was, I believe, well aware that to inform on a fellow
correctional officer could attract retribution in some form from other
correctional officers.

"There is absolutely no question in my mind that a rat code was in
existence at the time of this incident."

While Potter found Noble to be "an extremely emotionally fragile
individual," he believed that Noble had visited the apartment where the
cocaine deal was alleged to have taken place. The apartment belonged to
fellow guard Dallas Kropelin, although Noble initially identified it as
belonging to Renaud.

Noble testified that he bought a gram of cocaine from Renaud for between
$80 and $100.

Noble's description of the apartment matched descriptions given by Renaud
and others, Potter said.

But MacLeod, who launched a punishing cross-examination of Noble's
credibility at the hearing, said that Potter "ignored quite dramatic
evidence relating to the credibility of witnesses," including several
incongruities and changes in Noble's testimony.

He charged that if the government is going to accuse a guard of a criminal
act, it needed a higher level of proof than it put forward at the hearing.

Renaud vehemently denied ever using or selling drugs at the hearing. A
number of character witnesses testified that they had never seen him with
drugs or drug paraphernalia.

Potter said there was no evidence to substantiate the other allegation
levelled against Renaud.

Renaud was accused of selling Dave Perkins a gram of cocaine in the parking
lot of the Daisy Mart, a short distance from the prison, on the morning of
June 29, 2000.

Perkins, widely implicated in the corruption probe, and his wife Gail, who
was also a guard, both killed themselves in December of 2000.

The sole corroborating evidence came from a high-profile convict who was
working with the police sting and who told police Perkins told him that the
deal was completed.

"The convenience store parking lot encounter, in my view, lacks compelling
evidence for me to conclude that a drug deal took place," Potter
determined. "No one saw an exchange of money or drugs and I can not
conclude, on the basis of what I heard, that grounds for discipline exist
with respect to this incident."

Guard Gus Chenier, fired after returning a contraband bank card given to
him by Perkins to the same high-profile inmate, was ordered reinstated by
Potter in a judgment released last week. Six other fired guards will have
their appeals heard over the next three months.