Policing the police: What powers do civilian bodies have in Canada?
Global News
Video of police chasing a suspect through oncoming traffic last month startled Canadians. Two of the officers refused to speak to the police watchdog. So who polices the police?
Footage last month showing Ontario police pursuing a suspect through oncoming traffic on a highway left many startled, and the chase ended in a crash that killed an infant and their grandparents.
Two of the officers involved are refusing to speak to the province’s police watchdog, which they have the right to do.
An advocate says it raises an important question: who polices the police?
It’s a question Margie Gray has asked since seven Vancouver police officers beat her son Myles so hard in 2015 they fractured his eye socket and rib and ruptured his testicles, according to the findings of a subsequent coroner’s inquest.
That inquest ruled his death was a homicide – though the ruling carries no legal finding of responsibility. An investigation by B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office (IIO) ultimately found reasonable grounds to believe police may have committed an offence during Myles’ arrest, and submitted a report to the BC Prosecution Service for consideration of charges.
The seven have not faced criminal repercussions. Global News asked the Vancouver Police Department for an update but did not hear back.
“It has been nine years of bureaucratic processes that have (done) nothing but traumatized myself and my family,” Gray said.
The IIO, like other civilian oversight bodies agencies across Canada, is headed by a civilian and investigates police whenever an incident leads to the serious harm or death of a person.
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