xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh) / Vancouver, B.C. - Laura Holland, her family, and supporters seeking Justice for Dale Culver and Jared Lowndes are calling for a national and provincial inquiry into the disturbing and disproportionate police-involved killings of Indigenous peoples, and for a nationwide tracking system of police-related incidents of serious injury and death.

In keeping with B.C.’s reluctance to pursue justice for Indigenous individuals and families affected by policing violence, on April 23, 2024 the British Columbia Crown prosecutors determined that no charges would be approved against three Campbell River RCMP officers following the police shooting of 38-year-old  Wet'suwet'en father, Jared Lowndes, from the Nation's Laksilyu (Small Frog) Clan. Similarly, on April 5, 2024 BC PS announced a stay of proceedings against two Prince George RCMP officers in the tragic death of Gitxsan Wet’suwet’en man, Dale Culver, who was killed in police custody after riding a bike without a helmet.

In so-called B.C., the IIO is a civilian-led body that conducts investigations into incidents that involve police, including deaths and serious harm. The IIO’s mandate extends to reporting and referring investigations of police-involved deaths to the BC Crown Prosecutor for determination, including incidents involving on and off duty municipal police and RCMP officers. In 2023, the IIO recommended that Crown Counsel consider charges in respect of three RCMP officers in the police killing of Jared, on the basis that there were reasonable grounds to believe that an officer may have committed an offence. Similarly, in May 2020, the IIO had referred its investigation of charges relating to the tragic police killing of Dale Culver to Crown Counsel for approval. Yet, BC Crown Prosecutors reversed their avowed approach on this.

Impacted families and civil society organizations have increasingly called for transparency and accountability within existing police complaints systems and IIO investigations. These calls, including recent proposed amendments to BC’s Police Act, through BC’s Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act, have not resulted in any significant reforms to civilian police oversight and accountability.

In this vein, we join Jared’s and Dale’s families, friends, community members and civil society organizations, in calling for a public inquiry into the systematic failures of the criminal justice system and civilian police oversight bodies to redress the harms inflicted on these families through B.C. and Canada’s ongoing epidemic of policing violence against Indigenous peoples, including First Nations, Inuit, Metis and Afro-Indigenous peoples.

The “police accountability” system in so-called B.C. is failing Indigenous peoples

We know from our work in community that there are significant limitations with the existing systems of policing accountability. The recent decisions to further insulate police from criminal liability demonstrates a devastating trend that police officers can kill Indigenous people with impunity. This is in stark contrast to the heavy-handed prosecutorial practices wielded against marginalized communities that perpetuate the over-incarceration and over-imprisonment of Indigenous peoples in provincial and federal prisons across so-called Canada.

As documented in the 2017 Report of the Independent Police Oversight Review, police routinely assist in pre-screening all charges with Crown counsel before laying criminal charges. Charge assessments are carried out where the Crown counsel applies a higher standard when assessing the charges of (largely white or non-Indigenous) police officers, and conversely, lower charge assessment standards when determining charges in respect of Indigenous accused persons for similar offences, can clearly result in racial disparities that perpetuate historic disadvantage. Colonial and racially-driven police relations can, through bias and other structural factors, impact how Crown prosecutors assess charges and risk dictating the nature of charging practices, negatively impacting any attempt at holding police accountable for serious harm and killings inflicted on Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous peoples.

Under BC’s Police Act, to approve charges, Crown Prosecutors must be satisfied that there is a substantial likelihood of conviction based on evidence gathered by the IIO; and, that the prosecution is in the public interest. We were dismayed but not surprised that the Crown failed to consider the ways in which courts have increasingly been attuned to the systemic harms inflicted on Indigenous peoples by police, and the systemic racial disparities within the criminal legal system more broadly as a matter of public interest. In addition, courts are increasingly recognizing that policing is a matter of public interest (Ahmad v. Peel Regional Police Services Board, 2024 ONSC 2474 at para 122), and that there is a pressing public interest in achieving police accountability.

Social context surrounding the epidemic of policing violence against Indigenous peoples in so-called BC -  Indigenous Peoples are overpoliced and underprotected

We cannot look at the recent Crown Prosecutors’ failure to hold the police accountable in the deaths of Dale and Jared without situating it within a particular social context of policing and other state-sanctioned violence. It is well established that Indigenous, Black and racialized people experience disproportionate levels of discrimination and police contact (R v Le 2019 SCC 34 at para 90).  Intersecting structural conditions like class, gender and racial oppression, deeply rooted in colonial systems, continue to reproduce social exclusion, poverty, and other forms of state violence.

Several human rights commissions have reiterated that racial disparities in policing Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous peoples are rooted in systemic discrimination, making it more likely that police will use force against these communities, particularly in the context of low visibility policing (R v Grant, 2009 SCC 32 at para 154). Indeed, the IIO’s 2022-2023 Annual Report emphasizes the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in IIO investigations, and indicates that over 15% of affected persons identified as Indigenous. In 2022-2023, the number of IIO investigations that it referred to Crown counsel was 10 out of 210, and only five of those cases involved deaths of Indigenous peoples.

These disparities are also reflected in Reports of the Office of the Correctional Investigator (“OCI”), including a 2023 Report entitled Spirit Matters that demonstrates that Indigenous peoples in federal prisons make up 39% of use of force incidents over the last five years. Recent findings by the OCI on prison conditions for Indigenous peoples in Canada further document that Indigenous peoples are more likely to be affected by excessive use of force, security risk assessments, and placements in restrictive confinement units (SIUs), like those already found to be unconstitutional by our courts. 

Supporting affected families in calling for a public inquiry Into police killings of Indigenous peoples

We know that B.C.’s existing policing accountability systems are failing Indigenous peoples. This runs counter to the purported aims of BC’s Police Act to ensure transparency and accountability, particularly where police kill or seriously harm Indigenous, Black and other racialized members of the public. This is particularly troubling when we consider the ways in which both provincial and federal governments have failed to fulfill its human rights obligations to Indigenous peoples. The federal government has repeatedly abandoned its commitments to implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action relating to justice-system protections. Similarly, provincial governments like B.C. have not kept up with ongoing obligations such as implementing the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (“UN DRIP”), or BC’s Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, SBC 2019, c. 44 (“DRIPA”), as evidenced by growing Parliamentary debates about the need to repeal vital human rights legislation anchoring the government’s commitment to Indigenous peoples in B.C.

Consequently, it is imperative for the Province to exercise its power under s. 2 of the Public Inquiry Act, SBC 2007, c. 9 and launch a Public Inquiry into the systematic police-related deaths of Indigenous peoples in B.C. and the collection of disaggregated data in respect of the disproportionate killings of Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous peoples. This aligns with the Province’s responsibilities under respective laws and policies and would restore some level of hope in the administration of justice for affected families seeking redress and police accountability for harm to their loved ones.

Call to Action

Pivot has supported the courageous work of Justice for Jared since Jared’s tragic killing in 2021, and continues to take the lead of Jared’s family in calling for accountability for their son. If you’d like to learn more about Jared and the Justice for Jared campaign, please visit their website online at: https://www.justiceforjared.org

If you’d like to learn more about Justice for Dale Culver, please check out this recent press release: https://bccla.org/2024/04/press-release-seven-years-later-and-we-are-still-waiting-for-justice-for-dale-culver/.

If you’d like to send a letter to B.C.’s Provincial Government, and the Federal Minister of Justice, joining the courageous families who have been calling for a Public Inquiry into the disproportionate police killings of Indigenous peoples, please visit: https://www.pivotlegal.org/demandjustice

Background Documents

Letter to the IIO Re: Jared Lowndes demanding Indigenous involvement & oversight (September 8, 2021)

IIO File 221-179 - Investigation into the police shooting of Jared Lowndes on July 8, 2021

Notice of Civil Claim Press Release  – detailing Jared’s family’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and unnamed RCMP officers