After participating as counsel in five coroner’s inquests lately, here are some of my opinions on the process:

1. It takes far too long. It now takes years before a coroner’s inquest is held into a death. When Larry Campbell was Chief Coroner, it took an average of about seven months to hold an inquest.

2. In police-involved deaths, the coroner’s office defers to the police and lacks independence.

3. The family has no access to legal aid for legal representation. Typically, all the other participants and their counsel receive public funding from the taxpayer for their lawyers.

4. The family of the deceased is not entitled to make any submissions to the jury or suggest any recommendations to it.

5. The family cannot view documents unless it signs a promise not to disclose their contents. This despite the fact an inquest is supposed to be a public hearing designed to assure the community that the circumstances of a death are not overlooked, concealed or ignored.

6. The manner of selecting the five person jury is a mystery.

7. The jury’s recommendations are not binding. The provincial government has ignored jury recommendations made in 2004 that the police not be allowed to investigate themselves in police-involved homicides and that the family be given public legal aid funding, among others.

In conclusion, the process is most unsatisfactory from the family’s point of view. If reforms are not made, I doubt the utility of any family participating in any future coroner’s inquests in the province.

The coroner’s inquest into the death of Kevin St. Arnaud, 29, ended late yesterday in Vanderhoof with the jury classifying the death as a homicide. They heard evidence that RCMP constable Ryan Sheremetta, then 22, shot him three times in the chest from a distance of some 5.5 metres in the early morning hours of December 19, 2004. Kevin was intoxicated, unarmed, had his hands up and was holding only a white plastic bag and two plastic pill bottles just before he was killed.

Cst. Sheremetta testified he feared for his life and fired all three bullets from flat on his back as Kevin approached him in a menacing manner, shouting, “you’re gonna have to shoot me motherfucker”. However, his colleague Cst. Colleen Erickson, a twenty four year veteran of the RCMP, saw the shooting from nearby and testified that Sheremetta was standing “in a combat stance” when he fired the shots and that she did not hear the alleged threat. A civilian eyewitness reported that Sheremetta was standing just before the shots rang out, and that Kevin had his hands up in surrender.

The forensic evidence of three experts revealed that both men were standing, that Kevin was stationary just before he collapsed, and that the three fatal bullets entered his body in a downward trajectory of 30 to 40 degrees. The primary investigator, RCMP Staff Sgt. Glenn Krebs, conceded that he concluded in April of 2005 that there were “inaccuracies” in Sheremetta’s account , but his superior, RCMP Staff Sgt. Flath nonetheless subsequently advised Crown Counsel that there was “insufficient evidence” to support criminal charges.

The family was not allowed to make any submissions to the five members of the jury, whose identities remain unknown. Kevin’s mother, Delores Young, had wanted to suggest three recommendations to the jury: that the police not be allowed to investigate themselves in serious cases, that coroner’s inquests be conducted in a more timely manner and that the deceased’s family receive legal aid to enable them to have legal representation at such inquests.

The BC Solicitor General is responsible for coroners and police. In BC, unlike Ontario, Quebec and the UK, police investigate fatal incidents involving their own members. Their investigative report is eventually given to the coroner, who releases copies to the family only if they agree to preserve confidentiality over the file. Under the present Chief Coroner, it often takes several years to hold an inquest, which is a public hearing designed to assure the community that the circumstances of the death have not been overlooked, concealed or ignored. An inquest is mandatory whenever someone dies in police custody, but it may not find fault. Although lawyers and other representatives of the coroners office and the police appear at an inquest at public expense, there is no provision for public funding to assist the family of the deceased.

Cst. Sheremetta reportedly remains on active duty with the RCMP in Kamloops, as does Cst. Paul Koester, who fatally shot Ian Bush in Houston, BC in October of 2005. Kevin St. Arnaud leaves three young children, his parents, two younger brothers and a sister.

THE FIVE BIG “INACCURACIES”

Crown Counsel based its decision not to charge Sheremetta on his statement to investigators, despite the investigators’ conclusion that there were major “inaccuracies” in it. Here they are:

Sheremetta testified under oath that he fired from his flat on his back after falling, that he feared for his life because Kevin advanced on him with his right hand in his pocket and that in his RCMP career to that point (23 months in Vanderhoof) he had taken concealed handguns away from suspects “many times”.

According to the testimony of two eyewitnesses, one being a 24 year veteran of the force, and according to extensive forensic analysis of the scene, Sheremetta did not fall or fire from his back. According to the RCMP eyewitness, Kevin’s hands were both visible and not in his pockets at the tme of the shooting. Although the RCMP checked its records, it was unable to produce evidence that Sheremetta had ever relieved anyone of a concealed handgun before the incident.

THE RCMP INVESTIGATIVE TEAM

The homicide investigation was handled by RCMP members from Vanderhoof, Prince George and the Lower Mainland. Here is the list of participants:

Cst. Huisman, Cst. Muraca, Cst. Foy, Cst. Brown, Cst. Davidson, Cst. Davies, Cst. Michaud, Cst. Sullivan, Cst. Logan, Cst. Hudyma, Cst. Erickson, Cst. Caira, Cpl. MacLellan, Cpl. Beach, Cpl. Paul, Cpl. Gillis, Sgt. Krebs, Sgt. Doll, Sgt. Ward, Sgt. Gallant, Sgt. Gauthier, Sgt. Chanin, Staff Sgt. Kowalewich, Staff Sgt. Flath, Insp. Van de Walle, Insp. Hopkins, Insp. DeGrand, Supt. Killaly, Supt. Clark and civilian RCMP members Hall and Daborn.

By the way, none of these investigators contacted the occupants of the residence facing the shooting scene, about 100 metres away, to ask them what they saw or heard.

I picked up the Vancouver Sun today and, as usual, paid particular attention to stories about the justice system. Here are two paragraphs that caught my eye:

“Former teacher Tom Ellison was sentenced Friday to house arrest for sex crimes against teenage students at Prince of Wales high school in the late 1970’s and early ’80’s” page A1

“The group of 16 protesters appeared stunned as B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown sentenced Squamish elder Harriet Nahanee to 14 days for her part in disobeying a B.C. Supreme Court injunction telling protesters to stay away from [Eagleridge Bluffs] on May 25 of last year.” page B3

Hmm…I have spent more time in jail (five hours) than convict Tom Ellison will, and I wasn’t charged, let alone convicted, for anything at all.

As for 70 year old Harriet Nahanee, does punishment of 14 days in jail fit the crime resulting from the act of standing with others to try to prevent the blasting of a sensitive environmental area?

I would like to use this space to try to answer this question and explain these sentences, but my law degree and only 22 years of courtroom experience leave me ill equipped for the task.

Kevin St. Arnaud

The first two days of the inquest into the police shooting death of Kevin St. Arnaud on December 19, 2004 have been completed. The two RCMP officers involved in the incident are scheduled to testify Tuesday morning, January 23rd, at the Vanderhoof courthouse. The inquest starts at 9:30 a.m.

Last Thursday, forensic pathologist Dr. James McNaughton testified that Kevin St. Arnaud, 29, was killed by three gunshots fired in a downward trajectory into his chest from a distant range. He said he could not comment on an expert reconstruction showing that the shooter’s likely standing position was between 2.9 meters (8 ft.) and 5.5 meters (18 ft.) from where the body came to rest. Dr. McNaughton said the trajectory was consistent with the shooter firing from a standing position with his gun at eye level if both he and the deceased were standing. Dr. McNaughton also testified that St. Arnaud had a blood alcohol level of .20%, indicating intoxication, but had no other drugs (aside from a small amount of aspirin) in his tissues or fluids.

Friends who were with Kevin St. Arnaud at a Christmas party earlier on the night of the shooting described him as being happy and as the “life of the party”. He was also described as being a gifted artist and intelligent and conscientious worker.

Another acquaintance, Mike Buckley, testified that St. Arnaud came to his home and woke him up after midnight. According to Buckley, St. Arnaud was very drunk and had one hand in a professionally wrapped bandage. When St. Arnaud refused to leave, Buckley said he would have used physical force against St. Arnaud, would have “laid into him”, but it wouldn’t have been right, since St. Arnaud was obviously drunk and had only one good hand.

Local resident Abe Klassen testified he saw a police officer chase a suspect into the soccer field, yelling “stop”. The suspect stopped, turned and threw both hands in the air in apparent surrender. A few moments later, Klassen heard two gunshots in quick succession. He next saw the suspect lying on the field and two police officers approaching him.

Police reported the shooting over the radio at 1:09 a.m. December 19, 2004. No weapons of any kind were found on or near St. Arnaud. The RCMP themselves investigated the shooting, as is B.C. practice, and no charges were ever laid. Observers cannot recall charges ever being laid against a police officer in British Columbia as a result of a fatal shooting.

A few months after St. Arnaud was killed, in another northern B.C. community, Houston, another unarmed young man was shot to death by an RCMP officer. The RCMP investigated the homicide of Ian Bush and no charges were laid in that case either. The mandatory inquest into Ian Bush’s death has not yet been held.

There was some measure of satisfaction in seeing Condoleeza Rice glare at her Democratic inquisitors in Thursday’s hearings before the Senate Foreign Relation Committee. However, the Democratic inquisition is far too little, far too late. Where were they before March 20, 2003, the date Bush started bombing Baghdad? Where were they during Colin Powell’s embarassingly ridiculous dog and pony show at the UN, when he held up a vial of powder and spoke breathlessly about Saddam’s mobile weapons of mass production laboratories? The answer is, the Democrats were asleep at the switch.

I remember those days before March 20, 2003 very well, as I was but one of millions of ordinary people who took to the streets in demonstrations worldwide, naively hoping that mass public disapproval could stop the impending idiocy. Then, the Democrats and the American media were all supporting Bush’s insane decision to invade a sovereign Middle Eastern nation that posed no threat to the United States and, by all accounts, was a relatively peaceful place. Before March 20, 2003 there were no reports of scores of Iraqis dying in the streets, no reports of terrorist activity in Iraq whatsoever.

The Democrats’ belated opposition to Bush’s stupid and illegal war comes only because it is expedient now that they have regained some political power. It is far too late for the three thousand young Americans who have died, the twenty thousand or so who have been maimed and, though Iraqi lives are apparently much less important than American ones, for the sixty thousand or so Iraqi civilians who have died horrible and needless deaths.

Dr. Rice may indeed be glaring at her inquisitors, but she should be doing it from the dock, alongside Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Some day maybe, there will be an effective international criminal court that will be able to deal effectively with politicians who unleash terror on civilian populations.