The province's police complaint commissioner has called a public hearing into the conduct of seven Vancouver police officers in the death of Myles Gray in 2015.
B.C. police complaint commissioner Prabhu Rajan called the public hearing Wednesday (Dec. 11) and appointed retired B.C. Supreme Court justice Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey as the adjudicator. Dates for the public hearing have not yet been determined.
The hearing will look into the conduct of Vancouver Police Department constables Kory Folkestad, Eric Birzneck, Derek Cain, Josh Wong, Beau Spencer, Hardeep Sahota and Nick Thompson.
Gray was 33 when he died on Aug. 13, 2015 after a beating by Vancouver police that left him with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib.
Rajan, who can arrange a hearing if it's in the public interest, said the alleged misconduct in Gray's death is "serious and connected to a tragic loss of life, and there is meaningful uncertainty as to what happened."
The commissioner said a public hearing would help to better understand the truth of what happened and would allow for the best available evidence to be presented and tested in a transparent way before an independent adjudicator.
A public hearing, according to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, is a new hearing of evidence and testimony of the conduct of police officers led by an independent public hearing counsel. The family, and others, may be participants at the hearing and will be open to the public and media.
In October, a police chief from outside of the Vancouver department concluded a disciplinary process. He found that the seven Vancouver police officers did not commit misconduct in the events that led to Gray's death, adding that the framework for discipline proceedings under the Police Act has inherent limitations that restricted the testing of evidence and arguments from respondent members.
The discipline authority said there were discrepancies and inconsistencies in member statements, "which did not have the benefit of cross-examination and the evidence before him was limited."
The disciplinary process followed a BC Coroners Service inquest April 17 to May 1, 2023. The jury in that inquest recommend the Vancouver Police Department expedite its use of body-worn cameras for all patrol officers.
鈥� With files from The Canadian Press