The new unit is a rare Indigenous-led service to assist community members affected by police violence, misconduct and negligence.
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The B.C. First Nations Justice Council has started a “police accountability” unit, a rare Indigenous-led service to assist community members affected by police violence, misconduct or negligence.
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Started as a pilot project in 2024, the unit has already handled 220 files, including police use of force, potentially illegal arrest and detention, potentially illegal search and seizure, and wellness checks potentially involving misconduct.
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“This has just been informally by word of mouth,” said Judith Sayers, a B.C. First Nations Justice Council director and president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. “We haven’t done anything to go out and try and find these cases, so obviously the need is there.
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Among the 83 cases the unit is now looking at, 33 per cent involve municipal police forces and 67 per cent the RCMP.
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“When one of our community members or our children experiences police violence, we all feel it, and that doesn’t go away. The statistics are there and the pattern of violence and death has been documented time and again. The (police accountability unit) is a step toward taking police oversight into our own hands on a provincial level,” said Sayers.
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She said the unit provides a place to turn where First Nations people know they will be heard.
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The council said the unit’s staff lawyers are providing legal services that include hearing complaints, providing high-level opinions and suggesting next steps. The lawyers will also help file police complaints, pursue civil actions in court, and file complaints before bodies like the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
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The unit will take on cases involving B.C.’s 11 municipal police forces, the members, municipal bylaw officers and individuals in other law enforcement roles.
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Alexander Kirby, acting managing lawyer for the unit, said the service wasn’t based on any existing model, and he isn’t aware of anything similar in Canada.
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There are two lawyers working for the unit but the council is thinking of hiring a third and expects the demand is going to increase now that they have gone public, said Kirby.
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The unit is funded by a grant from the B.C. Law Foundation, a non-profit organization financed by the interest earned on lawyers’ pooled trust accounts held at B.C. banks and credit unions.
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Kirby said they would like to highlight some of the files at some point with the permission of the people involved — but don’t have any to make public yet.
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“These processes take time to come to a conclusion,” noted Kirby.
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The unit has helped file complaints with all police oversight bodies, he noted, such as the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP and the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner in B.C., which handles municipal police force complaints.
