Taser recommendations to be examined by British Columbia

June 13, 2012
Rob Shaw, timescolonist.com

 

The use of Tasers by police officers will be put under the microscope by a special committee of provincial politicians.

 

Eight government and Opposition MLAs were quietly appointed to study the issue, amid a flurry of other business on the last day of the spring session of the legislature.

The MLAs will focus on recommendations made by Justice Thomas Braidwood on Tasers, as well as how those recommendations have been implemented throughout the province, said Murray Coell, the Liberal MLA for Saanich North and the Islands and the committee convener.

“The direction we were given [by the legislature] was basically to look at the recommendations of Justice Braidwood, that’s the starting point,” Coell said.

MLAs will also consider “the scientific research into the medical risks to persons against whom conducted-energy weapons are deployed,” according to the committee’s terms of reference.

The politicians have the power to call witnesses, gather evidence and travel throughout the province, though it’s not known to what extent they will exercise those abilities.

Coell said it is reasonable to assume that police officials would be called to give evidence.

The first meeting is scheduled for July 18, and the committee must produce a report within a year.
Braidwood released recommendations on the use of and training surrounding Tasers in 2009.

The provincial government accepted them all and, in late 2011, approved new mandatory policing standards for Taser use, as well as crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques.

The Braidwood commission then went on to examine the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, who died after police repeatedly Tasered him while restraining him face down on the floor at Vancouver International Airport on Oct. 14, 2007.

The video of the incident sparked international criticism, and Braidwood ultimately said the actions of the four RCMP officers involved were shameful and not justified.

The officers have since been charged with perjury, and B.C. has launched a civilian Independent Investigations Office to handle police-involved serious injury and death cases.

“Clearly, given the death of Robert Dziekanski, given the serious concerns raised about the Taser … the committee has the chance to bring forward some good recommendations,” said NDP justice critic Leonard Krog, who is also a committee member.

The MLAs will also conduct a random audit of the police misconduct cases handled by B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.

Coell said the government is doing “due diligence” in examining the office’s performance.

Transit cop turned off by Tasers-Ex-VPD officer says he now doubts safety, usefulness of devices

"Dickhout, a former Vancouver Police Department officer who still works as a transit cop, said he will never carry a Taser again because he believes they are not appropriate for transit policing."

January 27, 2012
Sam Cooper, The Province

A SkyTrain transit cop who Tasered an intoxicated fare evader in Surrey testified Thursday that he believed the man was assaulting his partner, but in the aftermath he was sickened and decided to never use a Taser again.

In an Office of Police Complaints Commissioner discipline hearing, Const. Daniel Dickhout is alleged to have used excessive force on Christopher Lypchuk, who fell and smacked his face on a concrete stairwell after being Tasered at Scott Road SkyTrain station in September 2007.

"I don't think it was excessive," Dickhout testified of his use of the Taser.

"In my view at that time, he was attacking [partner] Const. Chartrand."

Lypchuk was cut over his eye in his fall but could have been concussed or even have died, according to public hearing counsel Joe Doyle.

Dickhout said he escorted Lypchuk off the train for fare evasion and was writing up a ticket on the platform when Lypchuk suddenly picked up two unopened beers and fled for the stairwell exit.

Security-camera footage shows Dickhout quickly drawing his Taser and catching Lypchuk in a steep and narrow stairwell, with his partner blocking Lypchuk from above.

Dickhout's partner "interjected" with a comment, according to Dickhout, and Lypchuk took a jerky step toward the second officer, before stopping.

Dickhout said from below, as Lypchuk took his step: "I see his right elbow back, in what I take to be cocking and throwing a punch."

At that point, Dickhout said, he pulled the trigger and Lypchuk stiffened and fell down several steps.

"I realized, days later when I watched the video from the top of the stairs, that he may not have been doing what I thought he was, and that made me sick," Dickhout said.

Dickhout, a former Vancouver Police Department officer who still works as a transit cop, said he will never carry a Taser again because he believes they are not appropriate for transit policing.

"Since that time, we had the [Robert] Dziekanski incident," Dickhout said.

"I don't think they are quite as safe and useful as I once believed."

Dziekanski died at the Vancouver airport in October 2007 after being Tasered and restrained by RCMP officers.

In cross-examination, Doyle established several inconsistencies between Dickhout's incident report and video evidence shown in court.

Doyle suggested Dickhout truly did not perceive an imminent assault, because Dickhout did not write in his report that he feared Lypchuk was about to punch his partner.

"When I reviewed the video, I was reminded of a punch," Dickhout said. "I don't know why it didn't get into my report."

The hearing has been adjourned until Feb. 22.

Hearing delayed in Tasering of transit fare-evader

May 3, 2011
Sarah Douziech, The Province

A public hearing into a Vancouver transit cop’s alleged abuse of authority stemming from the Tasering of an alleged fare-evader in 2007 was delayed Monday.

The hearing, originally scheduled for May 2, was announced by B.C.’s police watchdog in November after police agencies that investigated the case disagreed about the appropriateness of the officer’s actions.

Police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe has alleged Const. Dan Dickhout abused his authority during the incident.

On Sept. 13, 2007, Dickhout was checking SkyTrain fares and found Christopher Lypchuk had allegedly not paid the fare.

While Dickhout was writing a ticket, Lypchuk fled down a stairwell at Scott Road Station.

Dickhout caught up and Tasered him, causing Lypchuk to fall to the ground and hit his head.

The hearing has been delayed because the transit officer’s lawyer is challenging Lowe’s power to call a hearing, a spokesperson for the police complaints commission in B.C. said.

Last Wednesday, Steven M. Boorne filed an injunction in court that, if approved, could cancel the public hearing entirely.

If it’s overruled, MacDonald said the hearing could be rescheduled., but it wouldn’t be until 40 days following the ruling.

Bruce MacDonald, a senior investigative analyst with the commission, said their role is to restore or preserve public confidence in investigations of police misconduct or discipline.

“In terms of transparency and accountability, the police complaints commissioner retains the discretion to call a public hearing at any time,” MacDonald said.

The use of Tasers by law enforcement created an international black eye for Canada in October 2007 when Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski died after being Tasered by RCMP officers at Vancouver International Airport.

Taser use by Transit police was called into question in early 2008 after it was reported they were used on two non-violent alleged fare evaders.

Vancouver: Tasering transit cop to face public hearing

November 22, 2010
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - The B.C. Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner will hold a public hearing into allegations a Vancouver area transit abused his authority by shocking a passenger with a Taser.

The hearing has not yet been scheduled but the office says it's in the public interest to hold one.

The incident occurred Sept. 13, 2007, when a transit officer tried to write a ticket for a suspected fare cheat who the officer said appeared to be drunk.

The passenger ran away and the officer chased him into a stairwell where he used a conducted energy weapon to jolt the man, who fell and struck his head.

An initial complaint over the incident resulted in differing conclusions, went to a judicial review and eventually back before the commission, which has now ordered a public hearing.

The use of Tasers by police has come under close scrutiny in B.C. since Robert Dziekanski died after being shocked with an RCMP Taser in October 2007.

Use of shock weapons by Metro Vancouver transit police came under scrutiny at the public inquiry into Dziekanski's death and officials from the B.C. Transit Authority Police Service had to be ordered by the B.C. solicitor general to appear at the inquiry.

The inquiry commissioner later recommended the province enact standard rules for forces across B.C. in the use of conducted energy weapons.

Police-related deaths higher in British Columbia

October 27, 2010
Ian Bailey, Globe and Mail

British Columbia had twice as many jail and police-related deaths as much more populous Ontario in a recent 15-year period that was the focus of a study on the issue for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

The study, released Wednesday and calling for reforms in the investigation and prevention of such incidents, also finds that B.C. had the highest number of deaths a year of any of six provinces and territories for which numbers were available.

“We have what looks like people dying at a higher rate in British Columbia than in any other jurisdiction in the country that provided data,” said David MacAlister, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University and author of the report.

The study covered 1992 to 2007 – the period for which statistics were available. It crunched data from B.C., New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Ontario. Statistics were not available elsewhere.

In that period, 267 people died in police custody in B.C. – 53 per cent of them accidentally – though the numbers declined from 24 in 1992 to 11 in 2007. That compares with 113 people in Ontario, which provided data only from 1992 to 2006 and has three times the population of B.C.

B.C had the greatest number of deaths per capita, with one per 254,550 people a year, compared with one for every 1.63 million people in Ontario.

Mr. MacAlister, director of SFU’s Institute for Studies in Criminal Justice Policy, said he did not have a theory or explanation to explain why the numbers are so different in B.C.

His research concluded that one person died every three weeks in B.C., every 6.5 weeks in Ontario, every 19.5 weeks in Saskatchewan, every 31 weeks in New Brunswick, every 45.5 weeks in the Northwest Territories and every 71 weeks in the Yukon.

David Eby, executive director for the civil liberties association, said the findings speak to failings in the manner in which B.C. deals with such cases.

“It’s safe to say the safeguards that are supposed to be in place to prevent these deaths in B.C. are not working,” he said in an interview.

He said he was referring specifically to recommendations from various coroners’ inquests and accountability measures when police are accused of using excessive force.

Mr. Eby said the association is hoping the report spurs the government to step up its plans to establish a civilian-led Independent Investigation Office, which would probe in-custody deaths or police cases involving serious injury.

Currently, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, which is a civilian oversight body, investigates public complaints against officers in B.C.’s non-RCMP municipal forces. The federal Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP deals with complaints against the Mounties.

Former solicitor-general Mike de Jong has said legislation creating the agency could be tabled next year. Rich Coleman, this week named Solicitor-General in a cabinet shuffle, was not available for comment.

Mr. Eby also said he hopes the report will encourage B.C. to look at how to make recommendations from relevant coroners’ inquests more meaningful.

“It’s embarrassing that B.C.’s numbers are so out of whack,” he said.

Who should watch over civilian-led investigation unit in British Columbia?

July 27, 2010
By Benjamin Goold, Special to the Sun

On June 18, British Columbia Attorney-General Mike de Jong announced that the government would establish a new civilian-led unit to investigate all police-related deaths and serious incidents across the province. Following after the Braidwood Commission's second and final report into the death of Robert Dziekanski, the announcement represents a significant shift in government policy on independent police oversight and police accountability. Yet, while the government has rightly received praise from all quarters for this historic step, a number of important questions remain unanswered.

First, it is unclear as to why the government believes it must consult in order to determine who should be made responsible for overseeing the new Independent Investigation Office (IIO). Although the Braidwood Report clearly states that the provincial Ombudsperson should have jurisdiction over any new oversight body, the A-G has instead indicated that he has yet to decide whether the IIO should answer to the Ombudsperson or to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. Given that the government has accepted all of the Commission's other major recommendations about the structure and remit of the IIO, its apparent hesitation on the question of oversight is curious and worrying.

In his report, Commissioner Braidwood makes a good case for giving the Ombudsperson jurisdiction over the IIO. Looking at the experience of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Braidwood notes that members of the unit were found by the Ontario Ombudsman to be steeped in police culture, and that this prevented the SIU from becoming a truly civilian oversight body. As the new IIO will need to work closely with the police and may well be staffed by former police officers, there is a danger that it will likewise become increasingly aligned with the police and struggle to preserve its independence. Giving jurisdiction over the IIO to the provincial Ombudsperson -whose office is completely removed from the police -may not entirely eliminate this danger. It would, however, establish a distance that may help to ensure that the IIO maintains its civilian character and gains the public's trust.

The second major unresolved question is that of funding. Although it is still early days, it is vital that the government makes a clear commitment to providing the new IIO with the resources it needs to do its job properly. If the IIO is to help restore public confidence in the police and our criminal justice system, then it needs to be able to pursue investigations and discharge its oversight responsibilities without being constrained by penny-pinching or staff shortages. Sadly, history is littered with example of similar oversight bodies that have been established with the best of intentions but then crippled by inadequate resources. If the government is serious about addressing the problem of police oversight and accountability, it must be willing to put its money where its mouth is.

As the government begins the process of implementing the recommendations of the Braidwood Report, it is crucial that it acknowledges that the police are not like other public servants. Even junior officers are empowered to use force in the execution of their duties, and are frequently called upon to make difficult judgments as to when and to what extent that force should be used. Paradoxically, while police officers have this "monopoly on violence" they are also reliant on the trust and confidence of the public in order to do their job efficiently and effectively. Without the support of the public, even the most mundane police tasks can become extremely difficult and potentially confrontational.

Reconciling these two fundamental aspects of policing is no easy task. In order for the public to accept that the police should be able to use force, they must be confident that the police will only use this power when absolutely necessary, and that when mistakes are made they are investigated and wrongdoers are held properly accountable. Otherwise, there will always be an unhealthy tension between the police and the public, and the effectiveness of the police will be seriously undermined.

It is for this reason that the government must take the task of restoring confidence in the police extremely seriously, and ensure the IIO is both properly funded and completely independent. If we end up with an IIO that is a watered down or hamstrung version of the body envisaged by the Braidwood Report, we will have failed to learn the lessons of Robert Dziekanski's tragic death.

Benjamin Goold is a professor at the University of British Columbia's faculty of law, and the author of a number of books on policing, surveillance, and the relationship between security and human rights.

Independent police oversight

June 29, 2010
By Greg Klein, Vancouver Sun

Canadians strongly back Braidwood Inquiry findings, according to the headline on your June 26 article. But do the B.C. Liberals? They're waffling on a key Braidwood recommendation: that the new police oversight agency answer to the province's ombudsperson.

Retired justice Thomas Braidwood said the proposed independent investigation office "ought to be modelled on Ontario's Special Investigations Unit" and that "the provincial Ombudsman [should] have jurisdiction over the IIO." That last point is crucial because it took a lengthy investigation and a scathing report from Ontario's ombudsman to keep the unit from becoming an apologist for the police.

But in his June 18 media release, B.C. Attorney-General Mike de Jong said, "The province agrees that a legislative officer have oversight responsibilities for the IIO. We will consult to determine whether that is best achieved by the Ombudsperson or by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner."

The OPCC is run by Stan Lowe, a former Crown lawyer who took part in the decision to exonerate the four Mounties involved in Robert Dziekanski's death. He stated emphatically that the five Taser shocks and other treatment inflicted on Dziekanski were "reasonable and necessary."

Lowe's staff consists mostly of ex-cops. Now de Jong is talking about giving them jurisdiction over the new IIO.

Stan Lowe part of the problem with police complaints process

March 8, 2010
Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun

B.C. Police Complaints Commissioner Stan Lowe thinks a public hearing into a West Vancouver police officer's off-duty assault is needed to restore public confidence.

What planet is he living on? The police complaints process in this province is in a shambles.

It doesn't work, it has long been in need of reform and there isn't anyone who disagrees.

Lowe is a prime example of what's wrong with it.

He was appointed to this job after being a longtime prosecutor and the face of the criminal justice branch of the Attorney-General's Ministry.

He was the man who told the world that no charges would be laid in the death of Robert Dziekanski at YVR at the hands of four RCMP officers.

That distasteful December 2008 presentation, more than a year after the tragedy, was an affront to Dziekanski's family and to decency.

The attorney-general's office should be ashamed of its conduct in the case.

Lowe portrayed the Polish immigrant as a chronic alcoholic, the four officers as having done their duty and the investigation as above reproach. He said zapping Dziekanski five times with a Taser was "reasonable and necessary."

A week later, Lowe got his promotion to police complaints commissioner.

We now know Dziekanski wasn't a drunk, the four officers appear to have colluded with each other and to have lied. The glacial RCMP investigation was botched.

At the moment, the cops in this province play musical chairs with each other when police misconduct is alleged.

Abbotsford Chief Bob Rich, a former Vancouver cop, passes judgment on his former colleagues; when his boys are in trouble, well, he calls on someone like Delta Chief Jim Cessford to conduct an inquiry; and the RCMP, well, they've been acting like a law unto themselves.

It was Rich who decided the North Shore cop could keep his job with a demotion and 10-day suspension in spite of drunkenly beating a man on Jan. 21, 2009, while trying to wrongly arrest him.

That Lowe and his group of ex-cops are the oversight body is a $3-million-a-year joke. That is why the public has lost faith.

Lowe thinks a public hearing into the West Vancouver outrage will silence critics of the system and restore faith.

He couldn't be more wrong.

This problem isn't going away and another hearing won't solve anything. We have been wrestling with this problem now for years but the cops just don't seem to get it.

Most recently, a lawsuit was launched over two Vancouver officers who assaulted a man claiming it was a case of mistaken identity -- as if it were okay had they thumped the right guy.

Yao Wei Wu, 44, was dragged out of his house Jan. 21, 2010 and badly beaten, suffering fractures to his face and injuries to his legs and back. His eyes were swollen shut. His wife, Chi Nan Man, says she has suffered serious psychological trauma after witnessing the savage attack.

If you or I did the same thing, we would have been charged almost immediately.

These two thugs are still on the job and Delta police are taking their sweet time with the investigation.

What's worse, Lowe turned up at a press conference to stand beside Chief Jim Chu and defend this law-enforcement legerdemain.

The list of police misconduct in B.C. is already long and getting longer because the consequences for the officers involved is usually slight or non-existent.

That's why confidence in the system has evaporated and why some officers think they can get away with anything.

Faith in the police complaints process in B.C. will only be restored when cops and their insider friends like Lowe are not in control.

We don't need another hearing to tell us the police oversight system is broken; we need it fixed.

B.C. police complaints commissioner to review transit police Taser incident

See also: WWW.EXCITED-DELIRIUM.COM

March 6, 2010
Frank Luba, The Province

Since voluntarily changing the rules in 2008 around when Tasers are used, the transit police have used the conducted energy weapon just once.

The transit police had used Tasers a total of 10 times in 2007 and 2008, which resulted in a complaint from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association to the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner.

The transit police said Friday they have been exonerated in their use of the weapon in nine of the 10 instances, with the disciplinary authority asking for a review of the 10th incident.

The police also released a DVD of videos of the incidents taken by cameras on the Tasers or by cameras in the station where the incidents took place.

The BCCLA was surprised to hear about the exoneration of the police because the group hasn’t seen the decision.

Insp. David Hansen of the transit police said the police complaints commissioner’s report is still not complete but that the force intends to discuss it with the civil liberties group after the investigation is finished.

BCCLA executive director David Eby still wants improvements around the use of Tasers.

“There needs to be a [consistent] policy around when it’s used and how it’s reported,” said Eby.

He conceded the situation has improved, particularly after provincial Solicitor-General Kash Heed directed police, sheriffs and corrections officers in July to severely restrict the use of Tasers.

“It’s a much better situation than it was when transit police were Tasering people for fare evasion,” said Eby.

Heed was not available for comment Friday but a ministry source said the province is working with the federal government as part of ongoing negotiations to incorporate the Braidwood Commission’s recommendations about Tasers into RCMP policy and standards.

The transit police’s use of the Taser plunged after the force voluntarily changed the guidelines for using the weapon from suspects being “non-compliant” to “actively resistant.”

So instead of Tasering someone because they were fleeing after being asked for their ticket, as had happened previously, the last time transit police used the Taser was on an actively resistant suspect armed with a butcher knife.

The subject was later convicted of assaulting a transit police officer.

Despite the reduction, Hansen wouldn’t drop the weapon from his force’s armoury.

“It’s a valuable tool,” he said. “To us, it’s something we need. It’s another step. It’s a less-than-lethal option. I still feel there’s a need even though there’s only been one incident [since the guidelines changed].”

The complaints commissioner’s office did not respond to a request for an interview on Friday.

B.C. transit police release video of taser incidents

March 6, 2010
CBC News

Metro Vancouver's Transit Police Service on Friday released video of nine incidents in which its officers deployed Tasers in response to a CBC freedom of information request.

CBC originally requested videos of 10 incidents from 2007 and 2008 in which transit police used stun guns while making arrests.

According to police, an independent investigation by B.C.'s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has since concluded that in nine of the incidents, the person who was hit with the Taser either assaulted or actively resisted the officers before police used the stun gun. The commissioner's finding cleared the way for the police to release videos of those incidents, transit police Insp. David Hansen said.

One other case remained under investigation, so the video of that was not released.

Four of the incidents involved people who were initially stopped for fare evasion, but police say that in each of those cases, the person was resisting arrest or assaulting an officer before the Taser was deployed.

All of the incidents happened in 2007 or 2008, when police policy allowed officers to use stun guns when dealing with "non-compliant" individuals. They were recorded either by cameras on the weapons themselves or transit surveillance cameras.

Transit police policy has since been re-worded to restrict officers to using the stun guns only when dealing with someone who is "actively resistant."

Police also said that since the change, there has only been one incident in which transit officers used a Taser, and that case involved a man armed with a butcher knife.

Public scrutiny of the use of Tasers grew following the death in October 2007 of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being stunned several times by RCMP officers at the Vancouver airport.

Powerful police lobby likes cops investigating cops

January 29, 2010
Allen Garr, Vancouver Courier

Dr. John Butt was clearly annoyed. Butt is Alberta's former chief coroner and the former chief medical officer for Nova Scotia. At the moment of his annoyance, Butt was taking part in a panel discussion last week on deaths that have occurred while people were in police custody. The object of his annoyance was B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed.

In an audience made up of senior members of the RCMP, the Office of Police Complaint Commissioner, aboriginal leaders and advocates on the issue of in-custody deaths, neither Heed nor anyone from his office, which is responsible for policing, turned up.

The sponsor of the panel discussion was the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. The location was the VanCity Theatre.

Butt was joined on stage by three other panelists: the chair of the panel Dr. David MacAlister with Simon Fraser University's department of criminology; expert in police accountability and in-custody deaths, lawyer Cameron Ward; and filmmaker Leonard Cunningham, an expert in aboriginal in-custody deaths.

Behind them was a floor-to-ceiling projection on the theatre's screen, a mosaic of now familiar faces, some of the more prominent members of that tragic fraternity who have died in police custody: Frank Paul, Robert Knipstrom, Kevin St. Arnault, Clayton Willy, Ian Bush and Robert Dziekanski.

Sitting in the front row and bearing witness were the mothers of St. Arnault and Bush.

In-custody deaths are no small matter. Over the past several years in B.C. we have averaged two per month.

For those of you who have followed this debate, you will know it always gets down to the same point. There can be no confidence in a system where police investigate themselves. The RCMP, more than any other police force, has been battered repeatedly in recent years over the incredulous conclusions their own investigations into these matters have produced.

Ward, who has represented a dozen families who have suffered in-custody deaths, told the audience that we can't trust police nor can we trust the crown prosecutors who regularly work with police.

"The solution is really simple," Ward pointed out. "We have to have a body of independent civilian investigators respond immediately."

This is happening in Ontario. Ward also wants independent lawyers deciding if charges should be laid.

One point of clarification: What Ward is proposing should not be confused with what Heed and the Liberals in B.C. are promoting in their new police act, a beefed-up version of "civilian oversight." They draw support for that position from a report they commissioned from former B.C. Court of Appeals Justice Josiah Wood. But it still means police investigate themselves, albeit with a civilian occasionally looking over their shoulders. Wood came to this recommendation even though he found at least one in five police investigations seriously flawed.

There has, in fact, been a seismic shift in RCMP thinking in the past few months thanks largely to the beating they've been taking from the public and the media. Assistant RCMP Commissioner Alastair MacIntyre confirmed that in comments he made before the panel discussion began. The Mounties will accept what ever the government decides, including independent civilian investigation.

If you are wondering why Heed and his government aren't leaping at this, particularly given that they are in the midst of re-negotiating the province's contract with the RCMP, MacAlister offered this opinion, one shared by his fellow panelists.

We are captives in this province of a "very powerful police lobby" which likes things the way they are. Ex-cop Kash Heed is aware of that just as his predecessor, ex-cop Rich Coleman, was.

While that persists, nothing will change the shameful incidents of in-custody deaths.

Man beaten by Vancouver police to sue

This is not a story related to tasers, but I have to say I'm pleased that Mr. Wu has retained our own lawyer, Cameron Ward, to take his case forward. Mr. Ward will see that Mr. Wu is compensated for the damages he suffered at the hands of Vancouver's finest, who ought to be sweating bullets. You GO, Mr. Wu.

January 29, 2010
Jane Armstrong, Globe and Mail

A Vancouver man beaten by undercover police in what was later described as a case of mistaken identity has hired a well-known civil-rights lawyer who has warned that his client will sue the city.

Yao Wei Wu, 44, was beaten by two plainclothes police officers who came to his home last week to investigate a report of domestic violence. But they got the wrong home.

Mr. Wu suffered fractures in the bones around an eye as well as bruises to his knees and back. His wife and children witnessed the attack.

A letter sent from lawyer Cameron Ward to the city clerk states that he has been retained by Mr. Wu. “Please be advised that Mr. Wu will be commencing a claim for damages for personal injury against the City of Vancouver and those responsible,” the letter says.

The missive also alleges that police repeatedly visited Mr. Wu’s home to “try discourage him” from hiring Mr. Ward.

“Please ensure that this inappropriate conduct ceases immediately,” the letter says.

Mr. Ward was not available to comment. The letter was released by a group of Chinese Canadians who have been assisting Mr. Wu.

Initially, police said Mr. Wu resisted arrest, but Chief Jim Chu later retracted the statement.

Mr. Wu, a married contractor with two children, speaks little English. In an interview with CTV news last week, Mr. Wu said through a translator that police rang his doorbell in the middle of the night. When he opened the door, the officers yanked him outside and beat him.

After the television interview aired, police said they had personally apologized to Mr. Wu, adding that a senior Cantonese-speaking police sergeant and an inspector visited the family and listened to Mr. Wu’s account of events.

An internal investigation was also launched and one of the officers who arrested Mr. Wu was reassigned to desk duties.

A Vancouver police spokeswoman said Thursday that police would not comment on the letter.

Meanwhile, a Vancouver Chinese social agency, SUCCESS, will hold a joint news conference Friday with Chief Chu and Stan Lowe, the B.C. police complaint commissioner. SUCCESS spokeswoman Eileen Lao said the social services agency’s goal is to provide the Chinese community with information on how to complain about potential police misconduct.

Ms. Lao also rejected accusations from some members of the Chinese community that the agency has sided with police in the Wu case.

A group of Chinese Canadians, led by Gabriel Yiu, rallied to Mr. Wu’s defence after the attack.

Mr. Yiu said SUCCESS should be concerned with assisting Mr. Wu, providing him with translation and helping him find a lawyer – not holding news conferences with the police.

Mr. Yiu said Mr. Wu has psychological wounds from the attack. He also said Mr. Wu told him that police invited him to Friday’s news conference.

“It’s totally inappropriate,” Mr. Yiu said.

Impartiality in British Columbia police process theoretical

October 22, 2009
Greg Klein, BClocalnews

Now that the public hearings have wrapped up, it’s clear that B.C. police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe is completely out of touch with the Braidwood inquiry’s findings on Taser use.

Last December, in his previous job with the Criminal Justice Branch, Lowe took part in the decision to exonerate the four RCMP officers involved in Robert Dziekanski’s death.

Lowe stated that the five Taser shocks and other treatment inflicted on Dziekanski were “reasonable and necessary.”

Just one week later, Lowe was appointed B.C.’s police complaint commissioner.

Now he can make similar decisions on behalf of municipal police.

He heads a team of ex-cops. But the idea that ex-cops can be impartial about police complaints is naive. So says Andre Marin, former head of Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (which investigates police complaints) and currently Ontario’s Ombudsman.

Speaking of the Ombudsman, B.C.’s has no power over Lowe and his staff. In theory, B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner answers only to the legislature. But because the legislature doesn’t review its work for fairness, the OPCC really answers to no one.

Nothing in the province’s current amendments to the Police Act (for municipal forces) will fix these problems.

The federal process for RCMP complaints is just as bad. But with a truly reformed Police Act, B.C. would not only enhance confidence in our municipal officers, we’d set an example for the RCMP.

Police Act amendments give more power to police complaint commissioner

September 18, 2009
The Canadian Press

VICTORIA, B.C. — B.C.'s police complaint commissioner is getting more power to oversee investigations against municipal police officers.

Solicitor General Kash Heed says amendments to the Police Act will allow the complaint commissioner to get involved in real-time investigations of officers, as opposed to just reviewing the final results.

"The amendments to the Police Act are for us to move forward and create greater accountability in British Columbia to ensure that we have proper civilian oversight for our police here in British Columbia," Heed, a former West Vancouver Police chief, said Thursday.

The Police Act amendments were introduced earlier this year but the legislature adjourned before any changes were adopted.

The amendments ensure that officers under investigation who retire or resign will still be subject to the police complaint process. Former Victoria police chief Paul Battershill resigned in August 2008, days before he was to face a disciplinary hearing due to complaints of favouritism.

The amendments force officers to report any information uncovered during an investigation that relates to possible misconduct to the police complaint commissioner.

The commissioner will be authorized to order an investigation even if a complaint is withdrawn and will decide if a complaint warrants investigation from an internal or external force.

The commissioner, however, will not have the power to conduct independent investigations solely through the commissioner's office.

Heed said the Police Act amendments are simply a start and if further changes - like independent investigations - are required, they will be looked at.

"If it's not working, if it's not meeting our needs, if it's not creating more accountable policing here in British Columbia, I will look at furthering the process," he said.

That decision was met with disappointment by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"This tinkering with a broken system doesn't deal with the dysfunction at the core," said Jason Gratl, the association's vice-president.

Gratl said police investigations into the deaths of Frank Paul in a Vancouver alley and Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver airport have represented the end of the public's tolerance for police investigating police.

Paul was left in the alley by an officer after being removed from the police drunk tank. Dziekanski died after being repeatedly stunned by an RCMP taser.

"There's only one person who appears to have any confidence left that the police can investigate themselves in B.C. and that's our solicitor general," Gratl said.

Heed said the amendments also allow the B.C. police complaints commissioner to work with the federal government and RCMP to harmonize the federal public complaints process with the new B.C. Police Act.

The RCMP polices about three-quarters of the province, with municipal officers covering the rest of B.C.

Heed said he has sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan asking for changes that would allow B.C. Mounties to be covered under the province's Police Act, despite the fact they are part of a federal force.

"We feel in order to eliminate any confusion here in British Columbia for the public that we have either a harmonized process or a unified process to ensure that oversight and accountability," he said.

Heed said the matter will be an important one as the province tries to negotiate a new contract with the RCMP by 2012.

Taser inquiry delayed to Sept. after explosive email suggests officers lied

WOW. This takes me back to the day the coroner's inquest into my brother's death was abruptly halted. We became aware of a letter written by then Victoria Chief of Police Paul Battershill to Dirk Ryeveld, the police complaint commissioner for British Columbia, that raised concerns about the use of tasers. (Chief Battershill was in charge of the Victoria Police Department, which had been tasked by the police complaint commissioner to investigate the Vancouver Police`s use of tasers on my brother.) When we requested that the letter, which arrived at the inquest in a binder brought by a witness police officer, be marked as an inquest Exhibit, the coroner left the room for several hours before returning to announce that the inquest was adjourned. He did so without the jury present and he then left the hearing before our lawyer Cameron Ward could file any argument or submission requesting the inquest continue. The Coroner also ordered a ban on the distribution of the letter, in which Chief Battershill raised concern about whether police, by themselves, should be in charge of deciding where tasers belonged on the use of force continuum or whether this required wider public discourse. See Taser Inquest Shut Down.

WHO WILL STOP THIS MADNESS???????

June 19, 2009
By James Keller, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. - A single sentence contained in an email between RCMP brass in the weeks after Robert Dziekanski died has derailed a public inquiry, raising questions yet again about the testimony of four police officers and prompting calls for further investigation of the national police force.

As closing arguments were set to begin on Friday, a lawyer for the inquiry revealed a previously unreleased email that suggested the RCMP officers developed a plan to use a Taser before they arrived at Vancouver's airport.

All four insisted in their testimony that they did not.

The email was met with a tearful apology by the RCMP's lawyer for not releasing it sooner and denials from lawyers for the four officers and one of the senior Mounties referenced in the note.

All claimed the contents of the email were the result of a simple misunderstanding.

Commissioner Thomas Braidwood chided the RCMP for coming up with the email so late, and put the inquiry on hold until Sept. 22 so its contents can be investigated.

"I find the delay in disclosing this material to the commission to be appalling," said Braidwood.

"At the very least, it should have been disclosed to the commission before those officers testified."

The delay means the inquiry could still be hearing new evidence from senior RCMP officials and additional testimony from the four officers nearly two years after Dziekanski died on the airport floor.

Braidwood's final report - which will serve as a public record of what happened and include recommendations to prevent future tragedies - will be put off even longer.

And in the meantime, the RCMP, whose image appears to have already been damaged by the Dziekanski affair, has been forced to explain both the contents of the email and why it was kept from public view for so long.

The email was written in November 2007, just weeks after Dziekanski's confrontation with the Mounties.

In it, Chief Supt. Dick Bent and RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al McIntyre were discussing their media strategy for the release of the now-infamous amateur video of the fatal confrontation.

Bent recounted a conversation with Supt. Wayne Rideout, who was in charge of the investigation into Dziekanski's death.

"Spoke to Wayne, and he indicated that the members . . . . had discussed the response en route and decided that if he did not comply, that they would go to CEW (Taser)," wrote Bent, whose email was read in court on Friday.

The inquiry heard that the email was contained on a CD that the RCMP gave its lawyers in April, but government lawyers didn't look through its contents until this week.

Federal government lawyer Helen Roberts apologized for not finding the email sooner, which she called an "oversight," while casting doubt on the email's contents.

"Canada continues, as it has all along, to fully support the work of this commission," a tearful Roberts told the commissioner.

Still, Roberts said government lawyers have interviewed Bent, Rideout and McIntyre and concluded Bent's email may have simply been wrong.

"It is our conclusion from these interviews that Chief. Supt. Bent must have misunderstood information provided to him by Supt. Rideout," she said.

Lawyers for the four Mounties each stood up and said Bent's email was wrong.

But that wasn't enough for the commission.

While inquiry lawyer Art Vertlieb acknowledged the email was second-hand hearsay, he said the commission must determine whether or not Bent's comments are accurate - and whether there are any other documents that have yet to be seen.

"The RCMP have had this for a long, long time - it should have been out," Vertlieb told reporters.

The force released a statement insisted it has "co-operated fully" with the inquiry.

"Unfortunately in an exercise of this magnitude, such an oversight can occur," the statement said.

"The RCMP is as disappointed as all of the parties involved in this inquiry that there will be a delay in the completion of the inquiry."

Vertlieb also pointed out that it's not clear if prosecutors saw the email before making their decision on charges.

"One of the other questions is: Did the attorney general's office and the charge approval see this? And we have no idea."

Crown prosecutors announced last December that they wouldn't be charging the officers, but the officers' testimony prompted loud calls for that decision to be reconsidered.

The attorney general at the time said they could re-open the case if they hear new evidence, although the current attorney general wouldn't say whether the email would fit the bill.

Mike de Jong, who was sworn in as attorney general last week, declined to comment about the contents of the email or whether prosecutors may have seen it, and said any further decisions would wait until after the inquiry.

"It will be for Mr. Justice Braidwood to assess the evidence, assess its relevance and make appropriate findings," de Jong said in an interview.

"I will say this: Commissions like this and in fact our system of justice, rely on the fact that all witnesses who give evidence under oath, that they provide truthful and honest answers."

Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski, who has long demanded that the officers be charged, said she doesn't believe Bent was mistaken in the email.

She said she believes Braidwood will get to the truth of what really happened.

"I have to wait patiently, because what can I do?" she said. "I want to know everything about this case and that helps me to slowly understand."

The four RCMP officers' lawyers are also in the middle of their own legal manoeuvres unrelated to Friday's surprising developments.

Earlier in the week, they lost a court challenge in a B.C. court, where they argued Braidwood shouldn't be able to make findings of misconduct against them.

Ravi Hira, one of the officers' lawyers, said he and the others are considering launching an appeal, although he wouldn't say if the latest delay gives them more time to do that.

"We're certainly looking at that (an appeal)," said Hira.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a former B.C. premier and the federal Liberals' public safety critic, used the furor over the undisclosed email to call for a "comprehensive federal review" of the RCMP and its policies on Tasers.

"It should look at whether or not . . . the culture of the RCMP is broken and whether or not it is in need of a major overhaul," Dosanjh said in an interview.

"And if it is, what are the recommendations for that overhaul."

The inquiry resumes on Sept. 22.

Cops shouldn't investigate cops: Frank Paul report

March 13, 2009
By Suzanne Fournier, The Province

“Alone and Cold” is the title of Commissioner William Davies’ scathing report detailing how Vancouver police and the justice system failed Frank Paul, who died after police dumped him soaking wet in an alley in 1998.

“I’ve been very critical of some of the police officers that did handle Frank Paul and of the police investigating themselves ... and the manner in which they conducted their inquiry” into both internal discipline charges and possible criminal charges against the officers, Davies said in making his report public Thursday morning.

On Feb. 11 Davies, a former judge, gave his report to B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal and its release has been demanded for weeks by B.C. aboriginal leaders and the New Democrat opposition in the B.C. legislature.

Davies said the timing of the report’s release — and the fact that Frank Paul’s family in New Brunswick did not get the courtesy of an advance briefing as they requested — was up to the B.C. government.

Davies, handing out his report just across the hall from where the Braidwood inquiry is being conducted into the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski, acknowledged “some of the issues we dealt with have arisen at the Braidwood inquiry.”

A key issue, noted Davies, is “the public has lost confidence in the fact the police are investigating themselves.”

He admitted “there may be others who don’t share my view” but stressed he didn’t write the report to gather dust.

“I’ve recommended far-reaching changes,” said Davies, including a citizen investigation of all police-related deaths.

Paul, a New Brunswick Mi'kmaq, was dumped in a eastside Vancouver alley in December 1998 after Sgt. Russell Sanderson refused to admit him to the police drunk tank or take him to detox and instructed a junior officer to “breach” Paul.

Paul died of hypothermia and his New Brunswick family was told he died in a hit-and-run accident. Paul's cousin Peggy Clement, who testified at the inquiry, said the Mi’kmaq people did not learn the truth until three years later.

Davies was critical of Vancouver police but particularly of Sanderson, saying his evidence had to be “rejected in its entirety.”

Davies noted the VPD failed to properly investigate the death and the B.C. Coroners Service failed to properly notify Paul’s family.

Davies recommends B.C. “develop a civilian-based criinal investigation model for the investigation of police-related deaths occurring in the municiipalities policed by the 11 municipal police departments.”

Davies said “the independent investigaiton office” would be led by a civilian director, but investigators would have the status of police officers and, once advised of a police-related death, would take charge of the scene and become the lead investigative agency.

“The director would recommend to the Criminal Justice Branch whether criminal charges should be laid and, if so, which charges involving which officer or officers.”

Aboriginal leaders, who fought hard for the inquiry into Paul’s death, praised the Davies report this morning.

Tl’azt’en Grand Chief Ed John of the First Nations Summit said the report “shines a bright and clear light” on the failure of the Vancouver Police Department to safeguard Frank Paul’s life, the lack of services to aboriginal homeless people, an inadquate police investigation and the failure to lay any criminal charges in Paul’s death.

United Native Nations president David Dennis said Paul’s death was “a tragedy . . . and we have documented many, many more deaths of aboriginal people in police custody, yet no police officer in B.C. has ever been charged in connection with even one death.”

Dennis said he hopes the VPD and the B.C. government will pay attention to Davies’ sweeping recommendations.

“Just two years ago Chief Stewart Phillip and I sat in [former Vancouver police] Chief Jamie Graham’s office and he said to my face, ‘There will never be an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul.’

“Today we feel very vindicated and we are confident that Frank Paul’s family will feel vindicated as well.”

Said Davies in his conclusion: “It is important to understand that this is not just a case of investigation of one police-related death a decade ago which was done poorly.

“What this inquiry’s review has revealed is systemic flaws in the manner in which the Vancouver Police Department conducted criminal investigations of police-related deaths at that time, which continue today.

“These systemic flaws are grounded in conflict of interest — the police investigating themselves.

“I am persuaded that nothing short of a wholesale restructuring of such investigations would suffice.”

Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu issued this statement in response to the report.

"With the conclusion of the Frank Paul inquiry, I want to take this opportunity to once again apologize to Mr. Paul's family and to the community," said Chu.

"We deeply regret the loss of life caused by the mistakes our officers made, who had a duty of care for Mr. Paul. Since that tragic event we have strengthened and modified certain policies, our procedures and training have been reinforced, and we continue to work closely with our public health partners to further safeguard the lives and well being of those in our care.”

VPD spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said of Paul's death: “It was a tragic and regrettable event and everyone knows it shouldn’t have happened.”

She also said VPD has made changes to its policies and procedures, particularly those regarding jail, transport and reporting of those in custody.

“We’re certainly going to look closely at this report,” she said.

“How our society deals with chronic alcoholics is inadquate,” said the Davies Commission report.

While Davies noted that many police, ambulance and emergency ward staff treat such people with compassion, “the reality is that these current services amount to little more than revolving doors.”

Davies recommends:

• A civilian-operated sobering centre.

• An enhanced civilian-based detoxification program.

• Davies also urged, “Permanent low-barrier housing designed for the specific needs of chronic alcoholics which would offer, if needed, palatable alcohol substitution and managed alcohol programs.” (Alcohol substitution is a harm-reduction appoach that involves gradually weaning alcoholics off health-destroying choices such as Chinese cooking wine or Lysol, in favour of lower-alcohol choices such as wine or beer.)

B.C. RCMP's crisis of confidence - Civilian oversight over police could help boost trust

March 7, 2009
Brian Hutchinson, National Post

It almost seems a lost notion now: public confidence in police. Especially in British Columbia, where the image of men and women behind the badge takes one drubbing after another.

A Vancouver police officer is stopped, for allegedly driving while drunk. A New Westminster constable is arrested, and is allegedly intoxicated, after an automobile accident. An RCMP officer allegedly blows over the limit and faces charges after a 21-year-old man on a motorcycle is mowed down and dies. One municipal police officer is charged with robbery and another with assault and possession of stolen property, after an allegedly violent and unprovoked encounter with a newspaper deliveryman.

All within the last six months. The Dziekanski incident overshadows them. Whatever the findings of the Braidwood inquiry, Mounties have already been discredited, not the least for allegedly trying to mislead homicide investigators after the death in custody of Polish traveller Robert Dziekanski. In its examination of circumstances that led to Mr. Dziekanski's death, the inquiry points to what some participating counsel are calling a police "cover-up" and a "cooked-up scheme."

Officers testifying over the past two weeks have denied they meant to deceive, but they have confessed to making erroneous notebook entries about their encounter with Mr. Dziekanski, and to making incorrect statements to homicide investigators in the hours after Mr. Dziekanski's death. The flawed portions of notes and statements greatly exaggerated the deceased's behaviour at Vancouver International Airport, and seemed meant to justify a tragically intemperate police response.

Some observers remain surprised at the alleged cover-up. Perhaps they are naive. Had it not been for video footage of the airport incident, shot by a civilian passerby and released--after some RCMP stalling -- to the media, the truth behind Mr. Dziekanski's death would not likely have been exposed. At least, not in public.

We'd still be none the wiser were it not for the Braidwood inquiry, now on pause for two weeks. It points to another problem with policing in Canada, besides training and technique: that is, police cannot be relied upon to adequately investigate their own.

Is there still any doubt that charges could have been brought against some or all of the officers involved in the Dziekanski fatality? In B. C., it is the Crown that determines whether or not to lay charges. In this case, it decided not to. But were prosecutors well informed by police?

Whatever the inquiry ultimately finds -- the commissioner, Thomas Braidwood, can make recommendations about police conduct but cannot place blame for Mr. Dziekanski's death-- it has already had impact. Feelings of betrayal have been aroused, again. Betrayal by police and a reporting system that did not bring them to account.

Remarkably, a comprehensive "public awareness survey" conducted for the province in 2006 found that fewer than nine percent of British Columbians thought police should not investigate themselves.

What's more, 55% of those surveyed expressed confidence in the present police complaint system, which allows police members to investigate allegations made by civilians against municipal officers in B. C.

But the survey was taken well before the latest spate of police arrests, and more than a year prior to the Dziekanski death in custody. While there is no new formal data, it seems likely that public opinion has shifted. So after delays, the province's police complaints system is being overhauled.

This week, B. C.'s Solicitor General and Public Safety minister John van Dongen announced legislative changes intended to make it easier for civilians to file police complaints in cases of alleged criminal activity, and in cases of professional misconduct.

The proposed changes, to B. C.'s Police Act, would also make "external investigations mandatory in cases involving the death or serious injury of a person in the care or custody of municipal police and in cases of complaints against police chiefs."

The amendments might help restore confidence lost in the past six months, says Robert Gordon, a former police officer and the director of Simon Fraser University's School of Criminology, in Burnaby, B. C. But he's somewhat skeptical. "A revamp could not do too much damage," he allows. "But there's not much left [to police credibility] that isn't damaged."

The changes don't go far enough, says provincial NDP public safety critic Mike Farnworth. He points out they apply only to B. C.'s municipal police forces, and not to the RCMP. Mounties, he notes, patrol most of the province outside of Greater Vancouver and southern Vancouver Island. But complaints directed at them are handled by the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, in Ottawa. (In November 2007, the commision announced it had initiated a complaint into the conduct of the four RCMP officers involved with Mr. Dziekanski. To date, no findings or conclusions have been identified by the commission).

There's nothing in the federal RCMP Act that prevents provincial police complaints bodies from receiving and investigating complaints; indeed, the Act specifically refers complainants to provincial authorities. In an interview yesterday, Mr. Van Dongen said that B. C. will instead work with Ottawa to "harmonize" the two separate complaints processes. In the future, for example, a person with an RCMP complaint may be able to file it with the provincial commission, which would then forward it to Ottawa.

Mr. van Dongen responded to criticism that the proposed changes to the province's police complaints process do not provide for enough civilian oversight. Investigations into alleged police misconduct will still be led by police officers, usually from separate municipalities.

Putting civilians into investigative roles would be impracticable, explained Mr. van Dongen. "We have to have people who are skilled at investigations and who can conduct them properly." He acknowledged a growing cynicism for internal police investigations; however, he said, there remains need for "a balance" between public and police involvement in the process. Civilians will continue to steer the provincial complaints commission, he noted, and if the proposed amendments are passed, staff will be given more abilities and tools to review the status of complaints investigations.

"If we don't have confidence in our police, we lose an important element of an effective democracy," the minister acknowledged. Hopefully, efforts to sustain that confidence are not too modest, nor too late.

B.C. government revises police complaints process

March 4, 2009
CBC News

B.C. municipal police officers facing investigations by the complaint commissioner would no longer be able to escape discipline by simply retiring or resigning from the force, under proposed changes in the province's Police Act.

The officers will also be required to promptly co-operate with investigating officers or they can be charged with neglect of duty.

On Wednesday, Solicitor General John van Dongen introduced the legislation intended to strengthen the independent supervision of the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner and make it easier for the public to file complaints against police.

Among the new measures are stiffer penalties: the maximum suspension will increase to 30 working days without pay, from five days.

Officers cannot be compelled to testify at hearings into their own conduct, but they will have to provide statements and submit to interviews by investigating officers within five days of a request, or risk being charged with neglect of duty.

Officers who have retired or resigned will have disciplinary notes placed in their service records if they are found guilty of wrongdoing.

The revised police complaint process, van Dongen said, will include assistance for complainants with disabilities and anyone who's reluctant to sign a written complaint.

He said the commissioner's office will oversee the handling of investigations and can order actions ranging from a probe to mediation, and continue even if a complaint is withdrawn.

In addition, external investigations will be mandatory when a person has died or been seriously injured while in police custody.

Van Dongen said the changes address recommendations by a provincial court judge who wrote a report two years ago about the police complaint process.

"It addresses or goes beyond nearly all of the recommendations in Judge Josiah Wood's independent report on the police complaint process and will better balance and protect the interests of everyone involved," he said.

Changes weaken role of watchdogs
But the changes to the Police Act received a mixed review from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

Acting executive director David Eby applauded the provision that would allow the police complaint commissioner to replace a head investigator he is not happy with, but he said there are still gaping holes.

"One is that police are still investigating themselves so people who are shocked and outraged about what's happening in the [Robert] Dziekanski [Taser shooting] matter.… That kind of situation where police are investigating themselves will continue," he told CBC News.

Eby also said watchdog groups are being shut out of the process.

Such organizations can no longer file a third-party complaint with the commission if a witness or someone directly affected by an incident has already filed a complaint of their own, he said.

Eby said that means his association could no longer file complaints about in-custody deaths, for example, to ensure an investigation is done.

He said the commissioner's office has until now disclosed information to the group about an investigation and its final outcome, but that will no longer happen under the proposed changes.

Transparency at risk
"There's no way to get the information out [to the media] unless the family member or the individual who's making the complaint decides to release the information," he said.

Eby also criticized the new mediation process, which requires a complainant to participate in an information process with the police officer against whom the complaint was filed.

He said that while the complainant can be represented by a lawyer, many people can't afford one.

Mike Farnworth, the NDP's critic for the Solicitor General's Ministry, said the proposed changes came up in the throne speech over a year ago and he's wondering why the government has announced the bill just before an election.

"Are they seriously intent on passing it, or is it just an announcement … just before an election?"

Farnworth said there are still two police complaint processes in the province — one for municipal police and the other for the RCMP —- but there needs to be just one approach.

Alleged victim says he was robbed, racially abused by Vancouver Police

January 24, 2009
Catherine Rolfsen, Vancouver Sun

A 47-year-old Surrey delivery man who was allegedly assaulted by three off-duty police officers this week said Friday his assailants made racial comments and threatened to use a Taser on him.

"They told me that we don't like brown people. And I told them I am sorry," Firoz Khan told reporters Friday afternoon in front of his Surrey home. "That was the day I was delivering, when president Obama was elected as the U.S. president."

Early Wednesday, Vancouver police arrested off-duty police officers from the Delta, New Westminster and West Vancouver forces on suspicion of assault and robbery outside the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Khan told Global TV reporters that as he approached the doors of the hotel, a man standing outside ordered him over to him.

"He said, 'Come here, you f---ing idiot, get the f--- out here,' Khan said. The man then asked him how he could get to Broadway and Cambie, he said. "I told him, 'Take it easy, let me make this delivery, and I'll tell you how to go.'" The man persisted, he said. "He said, 'Come here f---ing now.'"

Khan said the man grabbed his jacket, pulled him to the sidewalk, and began to attack him. About five to seven minutes later, he was joined by two others. "To my knowledge, I have been beaten, first by one person, and then later by another two," said Khan, who has worked for Dolphin Delivery for seven years. "In total they were three. They kicked me in my head, kicked my back, legs, everywhere."

Khan said he was robbed of $200 in the incident and claims he was further threatened when he asked for help.

"They told me, 'We are the police, you don't need help. If you don't behave, if you don't do anything, we have a Taser,'" Khan said. "I told them that I am half-dead anyways, after you guys beat me up so badly, so you might as well use the Taser and then kill me so that's the end of the story."

City workers, cab drivers and McDonald's employees saw him on the ground and rushed to help, he recalled. "I was arrested, I was handcuffed by the police, and then a cab driver told police: 'He is not a suspect. He is a driver, getting beaten.'"

Khan made the statement in front of his small, white stucco bungalow in the 10800-block of 142nd Street in Surrey, flanked by his young family, which includes his wife Zabida and three daughters, aged four, two, and four months. A white bandage was on his head and he walked gingerly.

Many visitors were coming and going from the home all day, but repeated media requests were initially refused. At one point, a man emerged from the home with a hastily constructed cardboard notice saying "No media and trespassing" and stuck it into a bank of snow at the driveway entrance.

Also on Friday, Delta police announced that their officer under investigation in the incident is being reassigned to administrative duties. They did not release the officer's name.

Khan said he hasn't been able to sleep and is still in pain. "I decided to come out and tell the story, because we are all human beings," he told reporters. "Police are given the job to serve the public. If you cannot help, why beat a person? I feel very traumatized. I feel afraid. I've always liked my job, and now I feel very different, very afraid."

At least one Muslim-Canadian leader vowed to meet with police over allegations that the attack included racial slurs. "It will be very unfortunate if [the racial slur] was said. We've been fighting that business for too long," said Aziz Khaki, the president of the Committee for Racial Justice and president of the B.C. Muslim-Canadian Federation. "That is pure hatred. And if that was said, especially from someone who is supposed to look after the safety of the people, from the people who look after law and order... if they are [referring] to a man's skin in a [hateful] way, then it's a serious matter."

Under the Criminal Code, a judge is permitted to impose heavier penalties if there is evidence that an offence was motivated by hatred based on such things as race, religion or sexual orientation.

Khaki sits on many police committees and his organization has led intercultural education programs with police, he said.

On Thursday, New Westminster Police announced they have suspended their officer with pay. He has been identified as 38-year-old Const. Jeffrey Klassen. He has been with the force for four years.

West Vancouver police said they are reassigning their officer to desk duties. That officer has been with the force for 18 months.

The three friends were out for the night in the downtown entertainment district, said Klassen's ex-wife Sheri Klassen. After being arrested Wednesday by Vancouver police responding to a 911 call, the officers were released. They had not been charged as of Friday.

Vancouver police Chief Const. Jim Chu is calling for people to come forward who may have witnessed the alleged assault. Chu made the unusual move of speaking publicly during an ongoing investigation for "the sake of preserving the public's respect, and belief in the integrity of that process." "This investigation is being pursued aggressively and fully," Chu said in a written statement. "We are in the process of interviewing witnesses and examining evidence, including any video that may have been recorded."

Chu said there are parallel investigations under the Police Act, and said that chiefs in the affected jurisdictions "are taking the matter very seriously as well."

Khan is expected to be off work for some time, Dave Breen of Dolphin Delivery told The Vancouver Sun Friday. "I talked to him today and to be honest with you, he doesn't sound that good, as far as mentally," Breen said. "I think he's just still shaken up by the whole thing. So I really don't expect him to be back any time soon."

Breen said the Hyatt was one of Khan's delivery stops and the confrontation with the three police officers occurred as he was making his way into the hotel.

Breen said Khan has a "spotless record" after more than a decade working for the company.

Vancouver - alleged victim of police beating says he was threatened with being tasered

January 24, 2009
The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The delivery truck driver who says he was beaten and robbed by three off-duty Vancouver-area police officers claims he was warned about a Taser, and had a racial comment shouted at him.

Feroz (Phil) Khan described the harrowing incident for reporters Friday. Khan said he was first attacked by one man, who was then joined by the other two. "They kicked me in my head, kicked my back, legs, everywhere," Khan said.

"When I asked for help, they told me 'we are the police, you don't need help. If you don't behave, we have a Taser."'

Khan said he told them to go right ahead and use it.

"I told them that I'm half-dead anyways, after you guys beat me up so badly, so you might as well use the Taser and then kill me."

During the attack, Khan claims the men, who allegedly took $200 from him, said, "We don't like brown people."

A Vancouver Police spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

Furor over the arrest of three officers forced Vancouver's police chief to issue a statement earlier Friday.

Chief Const. Jim Chu admitted that it's unusual to speak about an ongoing investigation but - for the sake of preserving the public's respect - he wanted to reassure people about the integrity of the process.

"We normally reserve any comments out of respect for the process and a reluctance to say or do anything that might influence the outcome," he said.

Chu said the public needs to know the investigation is being pursued aggressively and fully. "We are in the process of interviewing witnesses and examining evidence, including any video that may have been recorded. We are asking publicly that any witnesses with information about the incident please call us," his statement said.

The chief said his fellow chiefs in the pertinent jurisdictions are also taking the matter very seriously.

The officers, all from different Vancouver-area police departments, were arrested Wednesday near a downtown hotel. Two officers, from the Delta and West Vancouver departments, have been reassigned to desk duties while a constable from New Westminster Police has been suspended with pay.

No decision has been made on whether to lay charges in the incident.

B.C.'s Police Complaints Commissioner is conducting a separate investigation into the allegations.