Deliberations underway following coroner’s inquest into death of VPD officer

Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide. If you or a loved one is at risk of self-harm, the BC Crisis Centre can be reached at 1-800-784-2433. Translation services are available.

Recommendations could come down as early as Wednesday following a coroner’s inquest into the death of a Vancouver Police Department officer.

Const. Nicole Chan took her own life in January 2019 at the age of 30. The inquest into her death started more than a week ago and has heard testimony from colleagues, doctors, friends, and her family, who want something to change so no other officer, or their family has to experience such a loss.

“What we’ve seen in Nicole’s case is there was a complete breakdown of consistent and complete information,” says Gloria Ng, counsel for the Chan family. “There certainly was information, the difficulty is as I’ve now heard from all these different witnesses throughout the course of this inquest that, unfortunately, the information that got to the assessing psychiatrist was not complete.”

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Chan completed suicide shortly after being released from the hospital where a psychiatrist did not admit her on mental health grounds. That doctor testified he did not have all the information about her case.

“The Chan’s family desire of the outcome from this inquest was really to amplify Nicole’s voice. We heard from herself in her victim impact statement that she didn’t want to be a victim and she was asking everybody to help her stop being a victim,” Ng said.

“What the Chan family hopes is that everybody understands that Nicole tried her best and she simply didn’t have, for reasons we may never fully understand, the proper resources to help get her to that point where she got to see really the full implications of her complaint and allegations.”

A couple of years before her death, Chan had reported inappropriate relationships with two senior officers, including one whom she said had blackmailed her into having sex. A civil lawsuit filed on behalf of Chan’s family last year claims she was being “extorted” by Sgt. David Van Patten to continue their sexual relationship.

Both of the supervising officers involved were investigated under the Police Act. Van Patten was fired, and the other eventually resigned.

Chan was placed on stress leave after she filed the complaints in 2017.

Sgt. Corey Bech, a friend and mentor of Chan’s, had testified he had spoken to her the night before she died. He says she was anxious about workplace rumours and upset that one of those officers was allowed to keep his job, while she was increasingly concerned she could lose hers.

“What the Chan family hopes everybody will see is what Nicole was like. Let’s remember the times where the witnesses have come and said that she was often a bright light in any room and to not forget the issues that we have uncovered throughout this inquest and to continue to place pressure on the various institutions that unfortunately failed Nicole. Let’s hope that this inquest actually brings forth change,” adds Ng.

Ng was asked if there should be a ban on relationships within the VPD between officers and their superiors.

“It’s a tough question because I think we also operate in a world where a lot of the times when we’re working, especially if we’re working long hours like our frontline emergency people, that you basically only have a very small social circle.

“I mean, that was certainly Nicole’s case as well. But I think what we’ve seen, especially in Nicole’s case, that more has to be done to ensure people understand the implications of what a relationship like that might look like, in terms of reporting, support, and in terms of really understanding some of the consequences that could flow from that when they’re still working in a department that might have oversight over their file.”

This inquest is not a criminal proceeding, and no verdict will be delivered. Recommendations, which are not binding, are meant to prevent a similar case from happening again.

–With files from OMNI and The Canadian Press