Heiltsuk Nation concerned it wasn’t consulted for VPD handcuffing policy changes

The Heiltsuk Nation is asking why it wasn’t consulted for a recent report recommending changes to the Vancouver Police Department’s (VPD) handcuffing policy after two of its members were wrongfully detained.

Chief Councillor Marilyn Slett says she should have been involved in the process, given the “traumatic experience” of two members of her nation prompted the rethink.

The changes being considered Thursday come after Maxwell Johnson and his 12-year-old granddaughter, Tori-Anne, were handcuffed while trying to open an account at a Vancouver Bank of Montreal (BMO) in 2019.

On Dec. 20, a BMO employee called Vancouver police, claiming Johnson his granddaughter, had produced fraudulent Indian Status cards.

Johnson and his granddaughter were detained, brought out onto a sidewalk, separated from one another, handcuffed, and searched.

Slett says the incident was “really distressing for the community.”

“So these policy changes that the Vancouver police department are looking at — knowing that they stem from in large part to that incidence — we really feel that there’s a lack of underlying cultural competency within the Vancouver Police Department,” she said. “So in developing these types of policies, they should include Indigenous participation.”

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• Vancouver mayor says arrest of Indigenous girl, grandfather at BMO ‘glaring example of systemic racism’

Slett believes police officers have had too much leeway on when they use handcuffs.

Without addressing the stereotypes, discrimination, or systemic barriers Indigenous people and people of colour face, Slett says “things will not change. They’ll continue.”

“There really has to be a lot of cultural competency within the system for policies to be fairly undertaken.”

In May, while the handcuffing policy review was underway, retired Justice Selwyn Romilly was stopped and handcuffed while walking on the seawall. Romilly, B.C.’s first Black Supreme Court Judge, said he was handcuffed after police told him he matched the description of a suspect they were looking for.

In the past, VPD’s Chief Const. Adam Palmer has said systemic racism wasn’t evident in Canadian policing. Responses like this, prove there is a “lack of acknowledgement” from the department, according to Slett.

“These things don’t happen without that underlying systemic racism that exists. So in order to address something, and bring attention to provide awareness, and fix, you can’t do that until it’s acknowledged. So that needs to come from the top,” she said adding, the next step the VPD needS to take is acknowledgement.

“We could create policy, there could be new policy directives — but until there’s real acknowledgement that there’s a problem that exists, the policy will not fix it.”

Slett also encourages in-person cultural competency programs.

Related Articles: Change to VPD handcuff policy after wrongful arrests ‘small step’ toward addressing racism: Turpel-Lafond

Just a few hours before the Vancouver Police Board met, Slett said she would encourage in-person cultural competency programs.

During the meeting, Deputy Chief Howard Chow said anti-racism training is slated to start next month and factors in Truth and Reconciliation.

Changes to the policy ensure officers consider a person’s age, race, disabilities and dignity before deciding if restraints are necessary.

The BC Human Rights Tribunal and Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner are currently reviewing the events leading up to the detention of Johnson and his granddaughter.

More changes could be made after these complaints are resolved.

Drazen Manojlovic, the VPD’s director of planning, research and audit, says training is set to start Nov. 1.

“The training section, upon knowing that this was coming forward, is building in an additional training aspect with this policy and combining it with that anti-racism training and that will be delivered all through to all front-line members.”

Moving forward, the Heiltsuk Nation is being consulted in finalizing the handcuffing policy, according to the VPD.

– With files from The Canadian Press