The Benchers of the Law Society of British Columbia have accepted Mr. Ward’s request to address the issue of mandatory CBA payments at the next Bencher’s meeting, scheduled for February 6, 2004. Mr. Ward has been given five minutes to set out his views on the subject.

Rich Coleman, Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety for the Province of British Columbia, has reportedly announced that the search policies at the Vancouver Jail have been changed so that new detainees will no longer be automatically strip-searched upon admission.

If true, this policy change is long overdue. In December of 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada made it clear that routine strip searches violated section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The authorities could only conduct these intrusive and demeaning searches if they had reasonable grounds to believe that the subject was hiding a weapon or evidence related to the commission of the offence that resulted in detention.

Inexplicably, those in charge of the Vancouver Jail continued to strip search everyone admitted into their custody.

Our firm has filed a class action seeking damages on behalf of everyone who had their constitutional rights violated since December of 2001. We are currently seeking dates for the hearing of an application to certify the case as a class proceeding and hope that the matter will be argued in the next few months.

If you wish to become a member of the class, please contact us.

Lawyers for both sides have agreed to February 25, 2004 as the hearing date for a summary trial application in a lawsuit filed by a dozen MBA students at the University of British Columbia over the 321% increase in their tuition fees for their program that commenced in August of 2002.

The students allege that they accepted UBC’s offer of admission to the MBA program on its representation that their tuition fees would be $7,000, “subject to adjustment…” After they paid their deposits to reserve places in the program, UBC suddenly and without warning “adjusted” their tuition to $28,000.

The students allege that UBC’s conduct constituted breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and/or misrepresentation by ommission on the part of UBC and are seeking compensation from the Court.

The case will be heard by the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The six Vancouver Police Department members who were convicted of 18 counts of assault after they transported three people to a remote park and beat them up have now been disciplined by Chief Constable Jamie Graham. Two officers were fired and the other four received 20 day suspensions without pay.

Several questions remain to be answered in this disturbing case. Among them:

1. How much has this sorry episode cost the city’s taxpayers?

The six were on paid leave for over a year at a cost of about $300,000 and they received the services of six experienced lawyers as the charges and disciplinary proceedings were processed. I estimate that the cost to the public of these lawyers was at least another $300,000.

2. How often do incidents like this occur but go unreported?

The beating incident came to light only because a junior officer with a conscience reported it. The others involved tried to cover it up. The evidence suggests that the beating was premeditated and was a form of “rough justice” meted out from time to time.

3. Was the public interest served in the criminal prosecution?

Special prosecutor Robert Gourlay presented a sanitized Agreed Statement of Facts that was the product of an agreement with the accused’s six lawyers. It bore little resemblance to the facts as reported by the junior officer. Judge Herb Weitzel did not have an accurate and complete record when he imposed sentence.

4. Can the VPD be trusted to investigate other incidents of alleged misconduct or excessive force within its ranks?

In my opinion, absolutely not. The Internal Investigation section of the Vancouver Police Department has proven that it is incapable of investigating its own in a thorough and unbiased manner. The Hyatt case is an excellent example. Sgt. Sweeney and Insp. Rothwell conducted a year long investigation into some fifty complaints, substantiated by video footage, that members of the VPD Crowd Control Unit needlessly clubbed civilians over the head to disperse a crowd. They produced a voluminous document that failed to identify a single officer who inflicted blows and that was characterized as a “sham” and a “cover-up” by the lawyer for the Police Complaint Commissioner. The system needs major reform.

5. What has the Police Board done to address the issues raised by this case?

Although the Vancouver Police Board describes itself as “the governing body for the Vancouver Police Department”, the silence coming from that quarter has been deafening. It resembles an ostrich with its head planted in the sand.

Check out the Chief Constable’s disposition of the case.

Stevenson family lawyer Cameron Ward has written the Attorney General and the Solicitor General requesting a public inquiry to investigate all aspects of the fatal police shooting of Thomas Evon Stevenson on December 7, 2002. Last week, a Coroner’s Inquest classified the death as a homicide and recommended that independent investigations should replace the present process whereby the police investigate themselves.

The text of Mr. Ward’s letter of January 21, 2004.