POLICE Complaint Commissioner Prabhu Rajan announced on Wednesday that in the public interest he has appointed Wally Oppal, retired BC Court of Appeal Justice, to conduct a review on the record to determine whether Constable Canon Wong and Constable Mitchel Tong of the Vancouver Police Department should be required to provide an oral apology consistent with Indigenous law to a Heiltsuk Nation grandfather and his granddaughter who was 12 years old at the time of the incident (the Applicants).
Following a discipline proceeding, the officers were found to have committed misconduct by recklessly arresting and handcuffing the Applicants without good and sufficient cause outside a Vancouver bank on December 20, 2019. In March 2022, a retired judge acting as discipline authority ordered several disciplinary and corrective measures, including a requirement for the officers to offer to meet with the Applicants and provide oral apologies “at a time and in a manner agreeable to the parties.”
While the officers provided written apologies to the Applicants, they have not agreed to apologize in the way requested by the Applicants. New evidence submitted by the Applicants as part of their reconsideration application explains the importance of an apology ceremony under Heiltsuk law and the ongoing harm caused to the Applicants because of the lack of a culturally appropriate apology.
“The Discipline Authority’s apology order was well-intentioned in seeking to improve the relationship between the Applicants and the police. However, failed efforts between the officers and the Applicants to agree on how the apology should be made appears to have worsened the relationship between the parties, ” said Rajan. “A review on the record will provide an opportunity for an Adjudicator to determine, with the benefit of the new evidence and in the context of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, whether the officers should be required to provide oral apologies to the Applicants, and if so, on what terms.”
Further details are in the Notice of Review on the Record which can be found here.
This is the first time the OPCC has used its reconsideration powers under s. 139 of the Police Act.
Oppal will preside as the Adjudicator for the Review on the Record, which has yet to be scheduled. Updates on the review will be shared on the OPCC website.
