He was detained by police after sending a tweet. 8 years later, he's fighting for a public hearing

Police and Public Trust, a CBC News Atlantic investigative unit project, scrutinizes the largely off-limits police complaint and discipline systems across the region. Journalists are using access-to-information laws, and in some cases court challenges, to obtain discipline records and data.

A man who was illegally detained by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and housed for six days at a psychiatric unit against his will in 2015 is determined to bring his case to a public hearing. 

But the police officers at the centre of the complaints have gone to court to stop that from happening.

Andrew Abbass filed public complaints against the now-retired Staff Sgt. Tim Buckle and Const. Joe Smyth in 2017, when new information surfaced during an unrelated police shooting inquiry.

After numerous years, reports and appeals, the acting commissioner with the RNC police complaints commission has sent the matter to a public hearing.

However, even that is in limbo, as both officers have applied to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador for judicial review.

"At the end of the day, no one has been found to be fully accountable in any meaningful way," said Abbass, 42, in a recent interview at his home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. 

"I wouldn't be able to sleep. As stressful as it is, I kind of feel like I'm on the right path. It's the path I was forced to take, but it's still the one I'm supposed to take."

It's been eight years since the alleged misconduct happened. Both Abbass and an expert in police discipline say the process against the two officers has dragged on far too long and speaks to the need for deep reform on police complaints procedures.

It's expected there will be two separate hearings. Smyth's public hearing — should it proceed — will focus on private BlackBerry messages between he and Buckle after Abbass was detained. The hearing for Buckle, meanwhile, will examine Abbass's detainment and the events that followed. 

Abbass first came to the RNC's attention in Corner Brook in 2014, when he attempted to charge then prime minister Stephen Harper and his foreign affairs minister for "inciting genocide by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people." 

Abbass had applied to the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador to hear his argument. The federal government issued a response, but a judge ultimately declined to hear the case in 2017.

"I was trying to spark a conversation," Abbass explained.

Then, on April 5, 2015 — Easter Sunday —  Smyth, a member of the premier's security detail, shot and killed Don Dunphy in his home in Mitchell's Brook, about 45 minutes outside St. John's.