[Wamvan] Fwd: Will Coroner's recommendations lead to change?

Tue May 15 00:11:07 PDT 2012

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Douglas King - Pivot <doug at pivotlegal.org>
Date: Mon, May 14, 2012 at 5:35 PM
Subject: Will Coroner's recommendations lead to change?
To: Tami <cosmictami at shaw.ca>

    Email not displaying correctly? View it in your
browser.<http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=4f6399306d&e=0de74ccece>
 <http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=709a5dcaf4&e=0de74ccece>
   HiTami,
<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=88f81b1896&e=0de74ccece>
A few weeks ago, I had the honour and responsibility of representing the
family of Michael Vann Hubbard at the coroner’s inquest into the death of
their father at the hands of Vancouver Police Department constables. Over
three long days, it felt like we dissected every detail related to how and
why Michael Vann Hubbard was shot in front of the Belkin House shelter on
March 20, 2009. We agonized over how police could have responded
differently and why it took so long for emergency services to arrive at the
scene.

When the dust settled and cross examinations concluded the five person jury
deliberated and delivered a series of recommendations, each designed to
increase the level of training and awareness of VPD officers in an effort
to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future. You can read
the full recommendations
here<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=71ed3648b7&e=0de74ccece>
.

In many ways the recommendations were a victory - the jury agreed with our
position that the VPD needs to enhance training for its members given that
more than a third of police shootings involve people with mental illness.
However, the fact that coroner’s inquests are not meant to assign fault or
blame, and are mandated only to produce recommendations for the future,
took away from the feeling that participating in the inquest would lead to
a real sense of accountability.

Equally frustrating is the reality that without a system of enforcement for
making sure jury recommendations are adhered to, they will remain
recommendations and not requirements unless the Vancouver Police Department
chooses to take the steps needed to implement them. Over the coming months,
I will be checking in on the VPD to see how they have responded to these
recommendations, and whether or not they have taken the recommendations to
heart in order to prevent future tragedies.

Throughout the inquest I team up with one of our policing and mental health
interns, Niki Schnurr, to blog about the evidence and revelations of the
day. You can read those blog posts here:

Day 1:
http://pivotlegal.org/pivot-points/blog/observations-from-the-coroners-court<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=99160143a6&e=0de74ccece>

Day 2:
http://pivotlegal.org/pivot-points/blog/observations-from-the-coroners-court-day-2<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=c94fed751b&e=0de74ccece>

Day 3:
http://pivotlegal.org/pivot-points/blog/coroners-court-day-3-and-recommendations<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=cc5ac70dd8&e=0de74ccece>

Sincerely,

Douglas King
Policing Campaigner

<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=23f5b36df3&e=0de74ccece><http://twitter.com/pivot_legal><http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=bb148e0fb0&e=0de74ccece>

  Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using
the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of
those most on the margins. We believe that everyone, regardless of income,
benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such as
opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

Our mailing address is:
Pivot
121 Heatley Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6A 3E9
Canada

Add us to your address
book<http://pivotlegal.us1.list-manage2.com/vcard?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=0ec5aed856>

Forward<http://us1.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=9a451e878eeec0a3e584da1a3&id=4f6399306d&e=0de74ccece>this
email to a friend

--
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/wamvan/attachments/20120515/a6a688fe/attachment.html>