Victoria Police Chief Jamie Graham has been accused of revealing the identity of an undercover officer. (CBC)

A critic of the 2010 Winter Olympics has filed a complaint with the province's police complaints commissioner alleging Victoria's police chief outed an undercover officer.

Victoria freelance photographer Bruce Dean claims Chief Jamie Graham endangered the unidentified officer by revealing the officer's identity in a speech to an international security conference in Vancouver last month.

Graham told the conference that an undercover officer had infiltrated a group of anti-Olympic activists and ended up driving the bus hired by the group to take them to protest the kick-off to the Olympic torch relay in Victoria on Oct. 30.

"You knew that the protesters weren't that organized when on the ferry on the way over they all rented a bus, they all came over on a bus, and there was a cop driving the bus," Graham reportedly told the international gathering, according to 24 Hours newspaper.

When the protesters attempted to block the Olympic torch relay route through Victoria, police quickly moved the torch into a police van and drove it around the protesters before resuming the relay.

Police to investigate chief's actions

Dean said Graham, who was Vancouver's police chief before moving to Victoria, acted improperly by revealing the undercover officers’ identity.

In documents posted on an anti-Olympic group's website, Dean said he complained to the commission in 2007 after an officer seized his digital camera and deleted several images police said showed an undercover officer. In that case, the commission came out in favor of protecting the undercover officer's identity, according to Dean.

In his latest complaint, Dean argued that if the prospect of inadvertently identifying an undercover officer was serious enough for police to violate his rights back then, then Graham's intentional revelation was no less serious.

'These officers can play spy games and make jokes about it, but we are serious about civil liberties and social justice,'—No 2010 spokeswoman Zoe Blunt

Commission spokesman Bruce Brown confirmed Tuesday that Dean's complaint had been received Monday.

"Under the Police Act there will be an investigation conducted," Brown said, noting the commission does not do its own investigations. Instead it hires other police agencies to conduct them.

Brown said it would be a week or more before a decision was made on who would look into Dean's complaint against Graham.

"Any time a chief constable is the subject of a complaint it has to be investigated by someone of equal rank or higher, either within another municipal department, or the RCMP," said Brown.

Police tactics concern protesters

Anti-Olympic protesters have also questioned the police tactic of infiltrating the protest groups, and have frequently complained that police assigned to the Olympic security unit have used harassment and surveillance to discourage their activities.

Hundreds of anti-Olympic activists marched through the rainy streets of Victoria last month, briefly disrupting the torch relay. (CBC)

"These officers can play spy games and make jokes about it, but we are serious about civil liberties and social justice," said No 2010 Victoria spokesperson Zoe Blunt.

"The police have pledged to protect and serve a corporate-sponsored sporting event, and they are spending millions to harass social justice advocates and indigenous rights activists and anti-poverty groups. That is not acceptable," said Blunt in a statement.

It’s not the first time Graham has been accused of misconduct. A report by the B.C.'s Police Complaint Commissioner concluded he committed discreditable conduct when he failed to compel his officers to co-operate with an RCMP investigation into misconduct on the Vancouver force.

Graham resigned before the findings became public and was never disciplined following the report.