Kamloops mayor files RCMP complaint against himself

The mayor of Kamloops has filed another complaint to police, but this time it’s different.

iNFOnews.ca has learned Reid Hamer-Jackson filed a complaint about himself this time.

Kamloops RCMP wouldn’t confirm any details about the complaint when provided a police file number, telling iNFOnews.ca there’s no information to provide and the investigation is “ongoing.”

Hamer-Jackson has not responded to inquiries about the police complaint.

Sources tell iNFOnews.ca the criminal complaint is related to his civil defamation suit against local businessman Joshua Knaak. Hamer-Jackson filed the defamation lawsuit last year in which he claims allegations he had groped Knaak’s wife were circulating in the community and damaging his reputation.

Wide public knowledge of the alleged 2023 groping incident didn’t appear to exist until Hamer-Jackson filed the lawsuit. Hamer-Jackson filed the lawsuit in June 2024 in which he denies a groping incident happened.

Since then, Hamer-Jackson has told iNFOnews.ca he has urged Knaak and his wife to ask police for a criminal investigation into the alleged groping incident.

“I asked Joshua Knaak to go down and file an assault charge against me. Why isn’t he doing that?” he said to iNFOnews.ca earlier this month. “I know why, because this has been going on for so long, and it’s all fabricated made up stuff.”

Knaak said he had no knowledge of the police complaint and would not comment further when contacted by iNFOnews.ca.

Based on the RCMP file number, the complaint would have been filed earlier this month possibly around the same time Hamer-Jackson was censured by council after violating conflict of interest rules.

An investigator found Hamer-Jackson should not have voted on or debated whether to approve a land use permit for a property owned by Knaak’s company. The lawsuit was still ongoing and Hamer-Jackson refused to leave the room.

The civil lawsuit, while largely stagnant, remains open.