B.C. researcher starts project to document Indigenous deaths in police custody

An independent researcher is calling for greater transparency around deaths in police custody in B.C., saying they disproportionately affect Indigenous people.

Leonard Cler-Cunningham, a researcher who has documented the deaths of Indigenous people in custody for decades and co-authored research into violence against sex workers in Vancouver, held a news conference Tuesday to launch the Not In The Public Interest website.

It contains statistics relating to in-custody deaths, and videos of previous deaths involving Indigenous people.

He says the website's title draws from one of the reasons that his numerous freedom of information requests regarding in-custody deaths were denied — that the requests were "not in the public interest."

Multiple appeals to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner regarding the requests have failed, according to the researcher.

"I think everybody believes that certain cases need more investigation," Cler-Cunningham told Belle Puri, guest host of CBC's On the Coast.

Over the next few weeks, Cler-Cunningham says he will solicit information from family members of those who died in police custody and work with collaborators to release recommendations for police forces and bodies like the B.C. Coroners Service and the Ministry of Public Safety.

Cler-Cunningham's news conference on the project came on the 150th anniversary of the RCMP's founding in Canada. The push for greater transparency comes at a time when there is increased scrutiny of alleged systemic racism within B.C.'s police forces.

"Not In The Public Interest is an example of the public's passion to make effective change. I think we've got a good opportunity here to make some substantive … recommendations," he said.

While much of the research that the project draws on has been previously documented — such as a 2019 coroners' death review panel that found Indigenous people over-represented within in-custody deaths — some of his findings have not been revealed before.

For instance, when looking at deaths of First Nations people while incarcerated between 1993 and 2003 in B.C., the project found 60 per cent of those deaths happened in police custody.

The calls for more transparency regarding in-custody deaths have been echoed by First Nations in B.C., including the Witset First Nation, whose members Jared Lowndes and Dale Culver both died after interactions with the RCMP.

Norm Leech, the former executive director of the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, says that Canada's policing model does not understand Indigenous people and needs a fundamental rethink.

"If Canada truly wants a national police force that is reflective of modern understandings of what is justice, then it has to start over," Leech said. "All those definitions and concepts of justice that it was built on in the beginning are outdated and archaic and are simply unjust."