According to recent reports, the practice of routine strip-searching continues at the Vancouver Jail. For example, a couple recently arrested by Vancouver police as a result of unpaid parking tickets were taken to the jail and subjected to strip searches.

People detained on minor offences, including bylaw infractions, are being strip searched without reasonable grounds. This abhorrent practice is against the law and is a violation of the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Despite a series of Provincial Court judgments condemning the practice, it continues.

With the death of a Rhode Island man the other day, 212 North Americans have now died after being Tasered by law enforcement officials, according to the Colorado chapter of the ACLU. Six people have died this month, 42 so far this year, after receiving the “less than lethal” weapon’s 50,000 volt jolt.

Despite 14 such deaths in Canada, no independent safety testing has been done in this country.

The Taser-related death of Robert Bagnell in June 0f 2004 will be the subject of a coroner’s inquest scheduled to begin September 5, 2006 in Burnaby, BC.

The man shot and killed by a Williams Lake RCMP officer on August 13th has been identified as 43 year-old Donald Dwayne Lewis. Mr. Lewis is at least the 23rd person to die at the hands of BC police since May of 2002.

His family now faces an interminable delay as they wait for answers. The police themselves will investigate the incident. Many months later, they will provide their investigative report to Crown Counsel and to the Coroner. Many months after that, perhaps years, the Coroner will get around to holding the mandatory inquest. This process is inhumane and unfair to the victims’ families. Coroners’ delays were the subject of an editorial in The Province newspaper yesterday.

Cameron Ward will be speaking on this subject on CKNW, AM980 on Sunday, August 20, 2006 at 3:00 p.m.

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The other 22 deaths:

The following list of people who have died while in police detention or custody in B.C. since May of 2002 has been gleaned from media accounts. Many of the media accounts are based on information provided by police. This list does not include deaths occurring in jail from natural causes or suicide. It may not be exhaustive, as some incidents may not have been reported in the press or may otherwise have escaped our attention.
1. Benny Matson; May 2002, Vancouver
Matson knocked over a motorcycle, was pursued and kicked in the head by one or more VPD officers. A coroners inquest was held and an OPCC complaint was dismissed.

2. John MacKay; July 2002, Vancouver
Mackay died in the Vancouver Jail of “blunt trauma injuries suffered from falling over and striking his head.”

3. Christopher Eklund; August 2002, Vancouver
Eklund “died accidentally after a struggle with Vancouver police” when his “heart stopped as a result of neck compression”.

4. Tom Stevenson; December 2002, Vancouver
Stevenson was sitting in a stolen vehicle the VPD had disabled. Two VPD members approached the vehicle. After Stevenson ignored their commands to get out, the police fired six shots into the vehicle, killing Stevenson instantly. At the coroner’s inquest, police stated that Stevenson had reached for a plastic gun. The plastic gun was photographed lying outside the vehicle near the left rear wheel. An inquest determined the death to be a homicide and the jury’s recommendations included a recommendation that the police not be allowed to investigate themselves. A civil suit is pending.

5. Lorraine Moon; February 2003, Cormorant Island
Moon was “brandishing a knife” when she was shot by an RCMP officer.

6. Terrence Hanna; April 2003, Burnaby
Hanna died after the RCMP shot him with a Taser, a “non-lethal” weapon that emits 50,000 volts of electricity and is designed to inflict excruciating pain and temporarily incapacitate the subject. (188 North Americans have died after being Tasered by police. No independent safety testing of Tasers has yet been done in Canada).

7. Keyvan Tabesh; July 2003, Port Moody
Tabesh was shot by plainsclothes Port Moody police after he had smashed a car window with a machete. An inquest was held.

8. Clay Willey; July 2003, Prince George
Willey died after Prince George RCMP repeatedly shot him with a Taser.

9. Joe Pagnotta; February 2004, Victoria
Pagnotta was shot by Victoria police after he “came at officers with a knife”.

10. Roman Andreichikov; May 2004, Vancouver
Andreichikov, unarmed, died after he was Tasered by VPD.

11. Robert Bagnell; June 2004 Vancouver
Bagnell, unarmed, was lying on his bathroom floor in medical distress when several VPD officers repeatedly shot him with a Taser. An inquest is set for September 5, 2006.

12. Majencio Camaso; July 2004, Saanich
Camaso was shot by Victoria police after he came at them with a pipe and crowbar. An inquest was held and an OPCC complaint filed.

13. Dean Andrusyk; September 2004, Vancouver
Andrusyk was shot by VPD officers when he “pulled a knife”.

14. Dwight Caron; November 2004, New Westminster
Caron died of trauma in the New Westminster jail.

15. Gerald Chenery; December 2004, Vancouver
Chenery was shot 12 times by two rookie VPD officers. David Eby represented the family at the inquest.

16. Kevin St. Arnaud; December 2004, Vanderhoof
St. Arnaud, unarmed, was shot three times by an RCMP officer while both were in a field. An inquest is to take place in 2007.

17. Unidentified man, 49, February 6, 2005, Vancouver
This Calgary man died after a “brief struggle” with the VPD.

18. Gurmeet Sandhu; June 2005, Surrey
Sandhu died after Surrey RCMP repeatedly shot him with a Taser. No inquest date has been set.

19. Stephen Hanaghan; June 2005, Kamloops. No inquest date has been set.

20. Kyle Tait; August 2005, New Westminster
Tait was one of five teenagers in a stolen car stopped by New Westminster police. Cst. Sweet fired three shots into the vehicle, one of which killed Tait. No inquest date has been set.

21. Ian Bush; October 2005, Houston
Bush, unarmed was shot in the head by an RCMP officer. The family’s lawyer is Howard Rubin. No inquest date has been set.

22. Ryan Snopek; January 1, 2006, Cranbrook
Snopek died from bleeding on the brain caused by a “crack in the skull”. No inquest date has been set.

On August 24, 2006, Madam Justice Brown dismissed Betty Krawzcyk’s application for a jury trial, rejecting submissions that she has a constitutional right to such a trial under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Betty Krawczyk, a 78 year old great-grandmother, faces a trial on September 15, 2006 on allegations that she is in crimnal contempt of court for disobeying an interim injunction order made in a civil case commenced by two corporations against Dennis Perry and Bruce McArthur. Perry and McArthur are two West Vancouver residents who were distressed by the BC government’s plan to construct a four lane highway through a sensitive and unique ecosystem known as “Eagleridge Bluffs”, rather than using a more environmentally-friendly alternative.

Betty was arrested after repeatedly putting herself in the path of excavation equipment to symbolically protest the provincial government’s decision to destroy the Eagleridge Bluffs. She has not been arrested or charged under the Criminal Code. Rather, she is the subject of a widespread BC practice, sometimes called “government by injunction”, whereby companies file a civil lawsuit and then prevail on the courts to issue a temporary injunction order to preserve the status quo. This is the technique used by MacMillan Bloedel in the notorious Clayoquot Sound case, where almost 900 people were arrested, tried, convicted and jailed for criminal contempt of court. The civil lawsuit that triggered the arrests was later dismissed for want of prosecution.

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Here are some learned comments on the practice of “government by injunction”:

“Government by injunction is a thing abhorrent to the laws of England and this province.”

Middleton J.A., Ontario Court of Appeal, 1924

“Having obtained an injunction in protection of a private right, the plaintiff seeks to turn it into a public criminal prohibition against the whole community, on the ground that there would be otherwise a flouting of the due course of justice. Can it be doubted that the proposition carries its own condemnation? It is indeed an ingenious argument for securing the aid of the criminal powers of the equity court against any persons whom the court can be induced to regard as having affronted its dignity or having interfered with the due performance of its functions.” Bora Laskin, 1937, Canadian Bar Review

“This has been a maliciously effective, pseudo-legal way of breaking the back of legitimate moral process.” Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963, commenting on the injunction and contempt charge that landed him in the Birminingham Jail.

“There is today the grave question of whether public order should be maintained by the granting of an injunction, which often leads thereafter to an application to commit for contempt or should be maintained by the Attorney General insisting that the police who are under his control do their duty by enforcing the relevant provisions of the Criminal Code” Southin J.A., 1990, BC Court of Appeal, Everywoman’s case

[This is], in essence, a request for the court to craft a proscriptive law binding on all citizens respecting certain activities. It is not the assertion of a civil claim at all, but the adaptation of the mechanics of a civil claim for the purpose of legislating, by way of injunction, a form of ad hoc criminal law…I think this proceeding amounts to a kind of officially induced abuse of process.”, McEwan J., 2003, BC Supreme Court

Dugald Christie

Vancouver lawyer Dugald Christie, 65, was killed near Sault Ste. Marie while cycling across Canada to raise awareness the plight of the poor in attempting to obtain access to justice.

Dugald was a courageous, selfless and tireless advocate for the marginalized and disadvantaged. He accepted clients and took on cases that few other lawyers would, and fought passionately for improved access to justice for the poor. His tragic and untimely passing leaves a tremendous void.

As cruel, capricious and unfair as the law can seem, it is no match for life sometimes.

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A personal note:

Some years ago, I was engaged in a lengthy, lonely and costly campaign to try to persuade the Law Society of British Columbia that it was wrong for it to compel BC lawyers to join the Canadian Bar Association as a prerequisite to being afforded the right to practise law in this province. Dugald Christie went out of his way to offer me his personal support. I found most lawyers were indifferent to my efforts, and many were downright hostile, so Dugald’s gesture was truly welcome. His encouragement meant much to me then, and means even more to me now.

Dugald Christie, God bless him, shall continue to inspire me in everything I attempt to achieve in the practice of law.