Investigation finds complaint against disgraced former VPD officer ‘unsubstantiated’

Allegations against a disgraced former VPD officer have been deemed unsubstantiated after an investigation by the OPCC.

Warning: This story contains graphic content.

Allegations against a disgraced former Vancouver police officer have been deemed unsubstantiated after an investigation ordered by B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, CTV News has learned.

But the sex trafficking survivor who filed the complaint says this isn’t the end of it.

In the report, James Fisher is identified as the subject of a complaint from a woman who CTV News is only identifying as “Yulia.”

“(Filing the complaint) tore my life apart. It literally tore my life apart, but I had to do it,” she said in an interview.

Last October, her complaint led the OPCC to order an investigation into Fisher over allegations of discreditable conduct.

Yulia said that in 2008, while being trafficked, she was booked through emails shared with CTV News, by a man named “Steve” who promised a “very tasteful but erotic” photoshoot with another woman.

He wrote: “This does not lead to sex of course…”

But Yulia said the emails were a lie.

“I’ll never forget what happened because … it’s life-long damages,” Yulia said.

She told CTV News last year that when she arrived at the home: “There was a bed set up in the front entry as soon as I opened the door. On the ground, like a mattress on the floor with sex toys lying on it.”

“I was instructed by the man to perform sex acts on the woman,” she said.

She said Steve told her he was a senior RCMP officer.

Yulia, who fled the country to get away from her trafficker, shared this experience years later in 2024 when she was speaking with a civil law office.

“I described a predatory pattern to a legal expert, and she suggested that I look into VPD misconduct,” she recalled.

During an online search, she saw a story about Fisher and a photo.

In 2018, Fisher, who had worked with sex trafficking victims, pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation and breach of trust. The victims were a teen girl and a young woman who were witnesses in a case.

Yulia alleges Fisher is the same man she knew as Steve.

But the OPCC investigation noted that Yulia’s “method of identification was problematic” and that: “This identification also occurred 16 years after the alleged offence, so naturally, memory could have faded.”

The investigation “did not identify any issues with her credibility,” but determined, among other things, that Fisher was on duty the day of the alleged incident, that he could not be linked to the car associated with the complaint, and that his email did not match the address in emails provided by the complainant.

The investigation also noted that a criminal investigation into the matter did not lead to charges.

Ultimately, the complaint against Fisher was found to be unsubstantiated.

“I was ready for that, to be honest with you,” Yulia said when asked about the outcome.

“I know it’s really hard to do things like this. I know it’s an uphill battle when you’re investigating law enforcement.”

But Yulia is deeply troubled by what she described as multiple inaccuracies within the investigative report.

“This needs to be redone because there are mistakes all over it,” she said. “There are mistakes with timelines, events that did not happen, details with my trafficking that are completely inaccurate.”

While she said these issues may not have changed the outcome of the investigation, they still matter.

“They didn’t care enough to get the details right. They didn’t care enough to ask more questions,” she said.

In an email, the OPCC said it could not comment on the case due to strict confidentiality provisions that “prohibit the OPCC from disclosing that an investigation has been or may be initiated or releasing any information relating to an investigation under the Police Act.”

CTV News also tried to contact Fisher through his former lawyer, but did not hear back.

As for Yulia, she said she will seek a review of the decision and is meeting with Delta police, who investigated the criminal complaint, next week.

In the meantime, she said she continues her work helping other trafficking survivors find justice.

“I had to do a lot of it alone and it’s really hard … and I don’t want survivors to give up,” said an emotional Yulia.