In 2007, Paul Boyd was shot and killed by a Vancouver Police officer.  Officers responded to a 911 call concerning a man carrying a potentially dangerous weapon.  Upon arrival, one officer shot Mr. Boyd eight times after he allegedly attacked two officers with a chain. The Criminal Justice Branch has just announced that it will not be advancing any criminal charges. In a report attached to the decision, the CJB advises that:

• only one officer fired on Mr. Boyd, no other police officers fired a shot;
• some attending police officers did not unholster their firearms;
• the shooting officer fired at least four shots after a direction had been given to the attending officers to “hold their fire”;
• Mr. Boyd was hit by at least four bullets and possibly five bullets after he was completely disarmed, including the final bullet that hit Mr. Boyd in the head when Mr. Boyd was crawling;
• the shooting officer said he believed Mr. Boyd was wearing body armour, and that Mr. Boyd was standing almost vertical and not crawling when he shot Mr. Boyd in the head;
• the shooting officer said he recalled shooting four bullets, but actually fired nine.

The investigation was not conducted by an independent investigative body but, as is customary in BC, by the VPD itself. It took two years of investigation to come to the decision that there is no need for a trial. This result is not surprising. A criminal charge arising from a police-involved death would have been the first in BC history. However is astonishing that the CJB argued that a criminal conviction was ‘not possible’ on the evidence even though the case of such complexity that it took two years to come to a decision. Instead of referring this serious set of allegations to the truth finding process of trial, the CJB acted as judge and jury by itself.

Unlike in BC, where a police force investigates itself after a death in custody, the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba have independent agencies called Special Investigation Units to investigate potentially criminal police action. The case of Mr. Boyd shows clearly the need for an independent investigative body in BC. It is not surprising that the public has little confidence in the police investigating themselves when police-involved homicides has never gone to trial in BC.

The BCCLA will continue to campaign for reform.  The circumstances of Mr. Boyd’s tragic death should not be kept secret and any decision regarding criminal responsibility should be made in court, and in public, not in private by the CJB.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, Transparency, VPD
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First it was four shootings in eight days, now it’s five in twelve.  These five shootings, with three fatalities, involve BC police forces.  Four of the five shootings involved RCMP officers.  The RCMP in BC are responsible for more than half of the RCMP’s in-custody deaths, despite accounting for only one third of the RCMP’s forces in Canada.

A man was fatally shot yesterday after a reported 4-day standoff with police in Buick creek, near Fort St. John.

Eugene Knight was fatally shot by Vancouver Police on September 19th.

Bill Gillespie was shot in Chemainus after a traffic stop by North Cowichan/Duncan RCMP.

Surrey RCMP peppered a reportedly stolen car with bullets after the unknown male driver fled a parking lot in Langley, striking a civilian vehicle, a police cruiser and a plainclothes officer.

Rodney Jackson was fatally shot by Hazelton RCMP when officers attended his grandfather’s cabin to arrest him on outstanding warrants.

Beyond the brief information contained in the newspapers, little is known about these incidents.  The BCCLA, the RCMP and BC’s police chiefs are all in agreement that a civilian-led agency needs to investigate police shootings and deaths in custody, although the BCCLA argues that only a civilian-staffed agency can eliminate any perceptions of bias and restore public confidence in the police.

The issue is not whether any of these dead men were good or bad people or whether investigating police officers is somehow an affront to the dignity of their public service.  The issue is about ensuring that when the government uses lethal force against its citizens, a transparent and thorough investigation occurs to ensure that the use of lethal force was justified.

The BCCLA will be filing police complaints for each of the cases, currently the only way the circumstances of police shootings and deaths in custody can be known outside of police circles until a coroner’s inquest takes place, usually years later.

Check out the latest story in The Province.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, RCMP, Transparency, VPD
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The new Police Act ignores the Frank Paul  inquiry, official reports on the state of the police complaint process, and the rising tide of public mistrust following the high-profile deaths of Ian Bush, Kevin St. Arnaud, and Robert Dziekanski.  Under the new Police Act, the police will still investigate themselves for the deaths they cause.

Following the death of Robert Dziekanski, an overwhelming majority of British Columbians thought misconduct had occurred.  As the RCMP defended itself, misrepresented facts, and refused to accept even the smallest amount of blame, the erosion of public trust was unavoidable.  When the public is given a rare glimpse into the investigations of in-custody deaths, as has happened with the deaths of Frank Paul and Robert Dziekanski, those investigations are profoundly different than other homicide investigations.  It is often the case that the police attack the character of the deceased while defending the very person they are investigating, and officers involved in fatal encounters are not interviewed immediately, sometimes for months.

There is no reason to trust the police to self-investigate.  And our respect for the police is not diminished by demanding external investigations; on the contrary, when an investigation we trust clears the police of wrongdoing, it can only enhance public trust.  Everyone, including the police, are better off without self-investigation.  So why is there so much resistance?

Tags: Death In Custody
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The BC Coroner has scheduled an inquest for November 2009 to probe the in-custody death of Robert Knipstrom in November 2007. The inquest will occur two years after Chilliwack RCMP officers used batons, pepper spray and a Taser on Knipstrom.  The cause of Knipstrom’s death has never been released.  The BCCLA filed a police complaint shortly after Knipstrom’s death, which will not proceed due to a subsequent complaint initiated by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP.

For deaths in custody, coroner’s inquests should be automatic, timely, and include funded legal counsel for the family. Conduct investigations also ought to be automatic, timely and released to the public whenever deadly force is used.

It is unfortunate that the BCCLA must initiate complaints in order to obtain information about in-custody deaths. It is unfortunate that the BCCLA seems to be the only organisation that does this in Canada. It is unfortunate that the quest for accountability is met with resistance, hindrance and delay. Robert Knipstrom’s family, his friends, and the public deserve better.

Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, RCMP, Taser
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Special Constable Greg McCormick of Halifax Regional Police testified before the Nova Scotia inquiry probing the death of Howard Hyde that he did not make threats before tasering Mr. Hyde.  Counsel for Hyde’s family questioned McCormick about several audible phrases:

“You’re going to be doing the fucking dance next.”

The statement was made at the same time McCormick drew his taser.  McCormick testified that Mr. Hyde used the threatening language.  Joanna Blair, Mr. Hydes sister, did not believe Hyde made the threat: “I’m sure because I would have recognized my brother’s voice.”  McCormick also played down the nature of the threat: “It doesn’t seem threatening to me.  It’s a threatening statement, but it’s certainly not a direct threat.”

“We’re just going to cut one of those balls off.”

McCormick testified that he reassured Mr. Hyde he was going to cut the lace around Mr. Hyde’s shorts.  Although the officer did not testify as to his exact words, the word “balls”, made while he was carrying a 10 inch serrated blade, apparently referred to a knot on the drawstring of Mr. Hyde’s shorts.

“Shut up.”

McCormick denied uttering this after Hyde arrived at the station while Hyde was speaking to other officers.

McCormick acknowledged that his supplemental report was written before his notes on the incident, the reverse of standard practice.  McCormick stated that the inconsistency was due to the fact that he had not been trained in notetaking: “As far as my notebook goes, I’m not sure what goes there…  It’s not something that I really know what I should be doing.”

Hyde stopped breathing after being tasered by Special Constable Greg McCormick.  Howard Hyde was revived by officers but died 30 hours later, reportedly after a struggle with corrections officers.

Read more in the Chronicle Herald.

Tags: Death In Custody, RCMP, Taser
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Last week saw the start of an inquiry in Nova Scotia probing the in-custody death of Howard Hyde. Hyde died shortly after he was Tasered by Special Constable Greg McCormick of the Halifax Regional Police in November, 2007.  In a turn resembling the Dziekanski inquiry, evidence has challenged officers’ accounts of events.

Constable Jonathan Edwards has recanted statements after contradictory evidence surfaced.   Edwards had previously stated that a booking officer warned Hyde he would be tasered if he failed to cooperate. No such warning appeared in a video recording of the incident.  Edwards also changed his story by admitting to using McCormick’s incident report to prepare his own after he had denied it.  Kevin MacDonald, who is representing Hyde’s family at the proceedings, noted that identical statements were used in both reports.

Special Constable Shannon Coombs has testified that Hyde became agitated after McCormick drew a 10 centimetre curved, serrated blade to cut a string on Hyde’s shorts.  This appears to contradict a previous statement by Coombs that she did not have a good view of what happened.  MacDonald suggested to Coombs that she could not see the device, to which she responded: “No, I did see him hold it, I did not see him use it”.

Howard Hyde, who suffered from schizophrenia and harboured a deep fear of the police, assaulted his common-law partner, Karen Ellet, after failing to take his medication.  While being booked at the police station, he attempted to flee.  Hyde was tasered during an ensuing altercation with police, and the entire incident was captured on camera.  Hyde was taken to hospital but was soon returned to police custody.  Howard Hyde died in his jail cell 30 hours after the initial incident.

Many have questioned whether psychiatric care would have been more appropriate than police detention. Ms. Ellet has stated that Hyde “was treated as a prisoner, not as a mental-health patient.” Nova Scotia’s medical examiner has  ruled Hyde’s death was the result of “excited delirium”, a term with much controversy in the health profession as it only appears as a cause of death in police-involved deaths and it is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Watch the inquiry live.

Tags: Death In Custody, RCMP, Taser
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The Braidwood inquiry was thrown into an uproar today after a Department of Justice lawyer representing the RCMP made a late disclosure of an email exchange between two senior RCMP officers just as closing submissions were about to begin. The BCCLA is a participant at the inquiry.

The email was an exchange between the two most senior officers in the “E Division” of the RCMP, and suggests that the four RCMP officers went into the airport planning to taser Mr. Dziekanski before they even saw him. At the inquiry, the four officers denied that they had discussed a plan in advance of arriving at the airport.

The email, however, suggests that one or more of the officers told their superiors around the time of the incident the exact opposite. Further, the email suggests that they contemplated using the taser not in accordance with RCMP policy and training.

The e-mail from Supt. Dick Bent to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Macintyre, dated Nov. 5, 2007, said: “Finally, spoke to Wayne [Rideout] and he indicated that the members did not articulate that they saw the symptoms of excited delirium, but instead had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply that they would go to CEW (conducted energy weapon).”

The issues raised by the email are highly relevant and go to the very core of the inquiry’s mandate. The public deserves a full explanation of the email’s contents and its drafting, and significantly, why it wasn’t disclosed many months ago. Further, the public’s confidence in the RCMP has been shaken and we need assurances that the RCMP is disclosing all relevant materials.

Inquiry Commissioner Thomas Braidwood said that he was “appalled” that the RCMP had not disclosed the information months ago, and ordered that the inquiry be postponed so that the contents of the email could be investigated. He stated that further evidentiary hearings may be required.

Commission counsel Art Vertlieb, who outlined the e-mail suggested that it may be necessary to recall the four officers to testify again. The senior RCMP officers involved in the email exchange likely will have to testify as well. The e-mail, written on Nov. 5, 2007, was disclosed only this week by the federal Justice Department to commission counsel.

The late disclosure of this document has disrupted months of work. We’re shocked that the email wasn’t disclosed to the commission and participants months ago, and call upon the RCMP to provide the public with complete assurances that full disclosure has been made. The public has the right to know why the RCMP did not disclose the email until after the four officers testified.

Grace Pastine is the Litigation Director and is counsel for the BC Civil Liberties Association at the Braidwood Inquiry

The transcript of the email as read at the inquiry is below.
(more…)

Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski, Taser
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Four of the RCMP officers under scrutiny at the public inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski have failed in their attempts to prevent retired judge Thomas Braidwood from releasing his report.  The officers alleged that Commissioner Braidwood did not have the authority to cast blame.

Arne Silverman, a judge of the B.C. Supreme Court, found that Justice Braidwood had treated the officers fairly during the proceedings and, according to the BC Public Inquiry Act, has the authority to make findings of misconduct.

Check out the article in the Vancouver Sun.

Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski
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The four RCMP officers involved in the in-custody death of Robert Dziekanski are in BC Supreme Court in order to prevent Commissioner Braidwood from potentially making findings of professional misconduct.  Commissioner Braidwood has advised each of the officers of the allegations on which he will make a determination. For example, Gerry Rundel has been advised that the following will be assessed:

• When he arrived at Vancouver’s airport, whether Rundel failed to properly assess the situation and failed to react appropriately in confronting Dziekanski;
• Whether the notes in his police notebook and the statements he gave to homicide investigators misrepresented Dziekanski’s behaviour and what happened in an effort to justify the officers’ actions;
• Whether Rundel continued to misrepresent what happened when he testified at the inquiry; and,
• Whether, during his testimony, he offered “a self-serving and misleading” interpretation of his notes and statements.

Check out the CBC story for more details.

Update: 10.06.2009

Check out the court documents the RCMP filed.

Tags: Braidwood Inquiry, Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski
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