September 15, 2026 — The Independent Press Gallery says a Saskatchewan Police Commission panel has backed down from a blanket ban on publishing evidence at the disciplinary appeal of former Regina Police Service Chief Farooq Sheikh, after IPG and Rebel News Network Ltd. moved immediately to challenge it.
The panel imposed the ban on the morning of September 14, 2026, at the very start of the appeal hearing into Sheikh’s dismissal from the Regina Police Service — a case that has drawn wide public attention over allegations that led to his firing. The order barred publication of all evidence presented at the hearing, full stop, with no attempt to limit it to any particular witness, document or piece of information.
IPG member, Rebel New’s Lise Merle was covering the hearing when the ban came down. Her reporting on just how sweeping the order was prompted IPG and Rebel News to act the same day, retaining counsel Andrea MacLean to file an application asking the panel to set the ban aside entirely.
A police disciplinary panel does not get to shut down public reporting on the conduct of a city’s top police official simply because openness is inconvenient. If there was information in that hearing that genuinely needed protection, Saskatchewanians deserve to know what it was and why an entire hearing needed to be sealed rather than a single sentence redacted.
On September 15, 2026, the panel’s chairperson, Aaron A. Fox, K.C., reversed course. His revised order lifts the blanket ban and replaces it with narrow, specific protections for one third party’s personal details — her identity, contact information, family members’ names and health information will stay private, and an affidavit filed on her behalf will not be published. Everything else heard at the appeal is now open to be reported.
That is what should have happened on day one. Canadians have a right to know how allegations against a police chief are investigated and what evidence is put before the body deciding his fate. The Independent Press Gallery will keep challenging bans that treat an entire public hearing as off-limits when the media and public are entitled to be there.
Sheila Gunn Reid
President, Independent Press Gallery
info@independentpressgallery.ca