According to news reports, Prince George RCMP shot an eleven year old boy with a TASER weapon last Thursday, and yesterday Vancouver police shot and critically wounded a 47 year old man. Few details have been provided by the police investigators who are investigating the incidents. In the latter case, Vancouver radio station CKNW reported:

“I.H.I.T.’s corporal Dale Carr says the two officers were on regular patrol in the area about 9:45 a.m. when they had an interaction with the man.”

“That interaction turned violent when the male produced a weapon, which caused one of the two police officers to then draw his service pistol and fire an undetermined amount of rounds at the individual.”

Carr says the man is not known to police.
He says it’s not known whether the man advanced towards the officers or what the initial interaction was about.”

Huh? It’s not known whether the man advanced…? The reason police investigators say they don’t know yet what happened is that in these cases, the police handle things very differently than they would handle civilian on civilian violence. They do not usually attempt to interview the police officers involved. Instead of taking them into custody, reading them their rights and attempting to extract an explanation for what happened, as investigators would do with civilians, they send them home, invite them to get legal counsel and ask them to submit a written statement when they are ready. When the lawyer-assisted statement is submitted, it usually contains an exculpatory explanation for what happened.

As former justice Tom Braidwood has repeatedly said, police should not be investigating police. Reform is long overdue.

The legal community has been shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Donald Brenner, Q.C. The former Chief Justice had a distinguished career as a lawyer and judge and we remember him fondly for the wisdom and equanimity he brought to the problems we presented him with, both as a judge and, more recently, as a mediator. He was kind and unfailingly polite and will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

On Wednesday evening, January 19, 2011, Commissioner Wallace Oppal and thirteen of the Commission’s staff members attended an emotional pre-hearing forum in Vancouver. We attended in our capacity as legal counsel for the families of the following victims or alleged victims of convicted serial killer Robert William Pickton: Georgina Papin, Mona Wilson, Marnie Frey, Dianne Rock, Cara Ellis, Cynthia Dawn Feliks, Helen Mae Hallmark and Dawn Crey. We told Mr. Oppal that, although many of our clients are skeptical of the process, we have urged them to give the Commission a chance, as it will likely be their best opportunity to obtain answers to the many questions they have about why Pickton was able to prey on women in Vancouver’s downtown eastside for many years.

We are anxious to start working in earnest on the file, but we have not yet received confirmation that the families’ expenses in respect of the Commission hearings will be reimbursed. It is noteworthy that Pickton himself reportedly received some $12 million in public funds to cover his legal expenses for the criminal proceedings against him.

On January 15, 2011, a lengthy story appeared in The Vancouver Sun chronicling aspects of our representation of former client Susan Heyes. We are disappointed that Ms. Heyes took her story, and apparently her file, to the media. Solicitor client privilege prevents us from commenting on the matters she has raised, but we remain proud of the successful work we did on behalf of Susan Heyes Inc. in the Canada Line litigation. We wish Ms. Heyes well in her future business and personal endeavours.

We have received many messages of support since the story appeared, for which we are very grateful, and we will endeavour to personally thank each of those who have contacted us.

Chief Constable Cessford of the Delta Police Department has determined that the complaint of our client Mr. Yao Wei Wu about the conduct of Vancouver police constables Florkow and London is unsubstantiated.

Yao Wei Wu in hospital shortly after he was injured by VPD members Florkow and London.

Mr. Wu was injured after he was awakened from bed and summoned to his front door at about 2:20 a.m. on January 21, 2010. He was dragged out of his home and assaulted by the two plain clothed police officers, who were mistakenly responding to a 911 call placed from a different residence.

Mr. Wu was interviewed by police investigators for over an hour and a half the next day, January 22, 2010, while he was recovering from his injuries. He was later interviewed again for about another hour and a half. He maintained that he offered no resistance and the two police officers assaulted him for no reason.

Police investigators did not get around to interviewing Constables Florkow and London until May 12, 2010, nearly four months later. After the constables consulted the same criminal lawyer, Delta police sergeant Guy Leeson “questioned” them in the company of Vancouver Police Union President Tom Stamatakis, spending 51 minutes with Cst. Florkow and 37 minutes with Cst. London. While Cst. Florkow acknowledged punching Mr. Wu five times, both he and London said it was precipitated by Mr. Wu’s resistance, something discounted earlier by their own Chief Constable and denied by Mr. Wu.

“This investigation was a farce and a whitewash”, stated Cameron Ward. “It provides yet another example why police should not be investigating other police. It took Delta police investigators more than nine months to investigate a brief incident in which the identities of those involved were immediately known. In the end, the investigators chose to disbelieve Mr. Wu’s account account of what happened to him, though he had no reason to lie. The investigators accepted the story of the two VPD members at face value, even though it is patently ridiculous and incredible to suggest that two trained police officers needed to use that much force on an innocent and bewildered man. The police complaints process in British Columbia does a disservice to law-abiding citizens like Mr. Wu and to the general public. The system is broken and needs immediate reform.”