March 11, 2008 update: Coroner Liana Wright has dismissed Cst. Todd Sweet’s application for a ban on publication of the proceedings at Noel Tait’s application for the production of records of Sweet’s history of complaints and anger management treatment. She reserved judgment on the latter application.

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March 5, 2008 update: Lawyers for Todd Sweet and the City of New Westminster will be seeking a publication ban on all proceedings at Noel Tait’s application for further document disclosure, according to documents served on us today.

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March 3, 2008 update: The coroner’s inquest has been adjourned to Monday, March 10, 2008 when lawyers will make submissions on the family’s application for fuller disclosure. The family is seeking more documents in addition to those recently disclosed by the coroner, including records of Todd Sweet’s prior violent altercations, his anger management counselling records and the New Westminster Police Service’s policies on employing violent offenders.

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Kyle Tait (1989-2005)

After a two and a half year wait, Kyle Tait’s family will finally have an opportunity to seek answers to their questions when the coroner’s inquest into his death begins Monday in Burnaby. Sixteen year old Kyle was fatally shot by New Westminster police constable Todd Sweet on August 23, 2005 following a short police pursuit. Kyle was one of four teenagers, two boys and two girls, riding as passengers in a stolen SUV driven by Ian Campbell, 18, when Cst. Sweet fired three bullets into the vehicle. Campbell was struck in the hand and Kyle died at the scene. Fortunately, the bullets missed the two 14 year old girls and the 15 year old boy riding in the back seat.

On June 19, 2005, some two months before Kyle’s fatal shooting, Cst. Sweet had assaulted a car theft suspect in a “cowardly act suggesting perhaps an act of unlawful street justice”, according to Judge Weitzel’s reasons on sentencing. The judge noted that neither Sweet nor the other officers on the scene initially reported the assault and ordered Sweet to receive anger management counselling as part of his sentence for the criminal conviction of assault causing bodily harm.

Three months before that, in March, 2005, Sweet reportedly assaulted a 70 year old widow, who later sued for damages.

When asked why Cst. Sweet was still on active duty following the June, 2005 incident, New Westminster Chief Constable Lorne Zapotichny reportedly told The Vancouver Sun that he “did not have anough evidence to support the complaint [of excessive force]”. Kyle Tait’s family plans to pursue this issue, among others, at the inquest.

Read Judge Weitzel’s Reasons for Sentence in R. v. Sweet here: upload

Read The Vancouver Sun, February 7, 2007 article here: upload

Chief Constable Lorne Zapotichny

Constable Todd Sweet

The coroner’s inquest is now scheduled to commence Monday, March 10, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. at Coroner’s Court, Metrotower II, Burnaby, BC.

Note: In British Columbia, legal aid is not available to the family of the deceased. If they wish to be represented by counsel, they must pay a lawyer or find one who will work for free. Typically, all of the other participants are paid by public funds. This case is no different. Almost everyone who enters the room at the coroner’s inquest into Kyle Tait will be receiving taxpayer dollars to attend. That includes, the coroner, the coroner’s lawyer, the sheriff, the coroner’s staff, the lawyer for the City of New Westminster, the lawyer for Todd Sweet and the police officers who are required to attend as witnesses.

Any suggestion that the coroner’s counsel can represent the interests of the deceased is, in these police-involved cases at least, open to serious question*.

The requirement that the family of the deceased must use their own money to pay for legal representation is, in my opinion, an unfair extra burden on them since they have usually suffered enough by the time an inquest is finally convened. The law needs to be reformed so that the deceased’s next of kin are on an equal footing with the public institutions who are usually involved in these cases.

*The BC Coroners Service: Independent from the police?

The BC Coroners Service is headed up by Chief Coroner Terry Smith (ex-RCMP, 35 years, retired with RCMP pension) and Deputy Chief Coroner Norm Leibel (ex-RCMP, 25 years, retired with RCMP pension), who report to Solicitor General John Les, responsible for policing in BC.

Kyle Tait’s death was investigated by members of the NWPS and RCMP. According to Judge Weitzel’s reasons on sentencing Todd Sweet for his June 2005 crime, “a number of senior police officers from New Westminster, the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department have written letters of support on behalf of Sweet…”