Officers will not attend First Nation's apology ceremony for handcuffing incident, Vancouver Police Board confirms
CTV
The Vancouver Police Board has confirmed that —despite its "best efforts" – the two officers who wrongfully handcuffed an Indigenous man and his granddaughter will not be attending an apology ceremony hosted by the Heiltsuk First Nation.
The Vancouver Police Board has confirmed that —despite its "best efforts" – the two officers who wrongfully handcuffed an Indigenous man and his granddaughter will not be attending an apology ceremony hosted by the Heiltsuk First Nation.
Board spokesperson Faye Wightman issued a statement Monday, responding to concerns raised by the nation on Sunday that the constables were not on the list of passengers flying to Bella Bella to meet with Maxwell Johnson, his granddaughter Torianne and community leaders.
"We are unable to speak to why the officers are not in attendance. In keeping with the terms of the settlement we made our best efforts for the officers to attend," Wightman wrote in an email to CTV News.
"We hope assumptions are not made regarding the constables’ decision not to be at the ceremony. The Board will not let this detract from the bigger picture, or our willingness to collaborate and implement change."
The ceremony was one component of what was described as a "ground-breaking" settlement in a human rights complaint launched by Johnson in 2019 after he and then-12-year-old Torianne were removed from a Bank of Montreal branch in downtown Vancouver where they were trying to open an account.
The statement from the board notes that the settlement of the human rights complaint is a separate matter from the disciplinary process that found the officers had committed misconduct and acted in a manner that discriminated against the Indigenous family after being called to the branch by a staff member who dialed 911 because they 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 after they were called to the downtown Vancouver Bank of Montreal branch. 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.
