Journalism thread on attempt to follow accountability/court in allegations of sexual assault of minor against a Mountie -- Manitoba's Independent Investigation unit is not providing name, file # or court date for Mountie charged with sexual assault, sexual interference. 1/5

No names/charges match on the docket this week. RCMP won't provide info. Provincial court can't look up case without name or file #. He was released on an undertaking which means his court date could be a month away and there's no real way of knowing. 2/5

On top of dealing with a pandemic that means if the public is to learn about what happens in this scenario (there's accountability) I need to go to the court house every morning...Read through dockets of hundreds of names/charges and hope that one day they match this scenario 3/5

I deduce a match using the bare minimum info I have (date incident happened+ name of charges). This is six months into a pandemic, encouraging people to work from home, and during a global movement calling for police accountability. 4/5

I can't even BEGIN to report on how this progresses through court until I figure this out.... So I guess see you at the court house every morning and I won't be taking days off and I'll still be reporting on everything else I do. 5/5

A fun add on for those who make it to the end... here's an investigation I did recently — ‘Totally unacceptable’: Majority of independent investigators are white men, former police officers https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-totally-unacceptable-majority-of-independent-investigators-are/

... UPDATE... I have it confirmed it WON'T take place in Winnipeg. So I don't have to check those dockets. But it also means I don't have access to northern dockets. (new challenge as pointed out by @heyjturner)