'Another hurtful chapter': VPD officers not attending First Nation's apology ceremony for handcuffing incident
CTV
The Heiltsuk First Nation says the decision of two Vancouver police officers not to attend an apology ceremony represents a failure of the department as a whole to take accountability for systemic racism.
The Heiltsuk First Nation says the decision of two Vancouver police officers not to attend an apology ceremony represents a failure of the department as a whole to take accountability for systemic racism.
Monday's ceremony in Bella Bella was meant to be one component of what was described as a "ground-breaking" settlement of a human rights complaint that police discriminated against an Indigenous man and his granddaughter when they wrongfully handcuffed them both outside a Vancouver bank.
"We are extremely disappointed and disheartened by the constables’ decision not to attend," wrote Chief Marilyn Slett in a statement.
"The constables’ lack of willingness to walk alongside us and respect our traditions is a continuation of the discrimination that police have shown toward Indigenous people in the past.”
In 2019, Maxwell Johnson and then-12-year-old Torianne were removed from a Bank of Montreal branch in downtown Vancouver and handcuffed after an employee called 911 reporting that he suspected the pair of fraud.
A review by a retired judge, ordered by B.C.'s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, found that constables Canon Wong and Mitchel Tong committed misconduct. Each officer was found to have committed two counts of abuse of authority – first, by removing Johnson and Torianne from the bank "without reasonable cause" and "recklessly arresting" them; second, by "recklessly using unnecessary force" by putting them both in handcuffs.
"This decision has also found that the cultural safety needs of Mr. Maxwell and his granddaughter, Indigenous persons who found themselves under scrutiny by police, were simply not considered by the officers in question. In the result, two vulnerable persons of Indigenous heritage were exposed to unnecessary trauma and fear, and left with a serious perception of unfairness in their treatment at the hands of police," Brian Neal, Q.C wrote.
