The impacts of police and policing

The Attorney General must take immediate action to increase access to justice for people who believe they have been the victims of excessive force, discrimination, or harassment by police by:

Recommendation 2: Dedicating legal aid funding for:

1. a clinic to support people to make police complaints through summary advice, short service, or full representation based on the needs of the individual and the nature of the complaint
2. public legal education workshops and materials to help people navigate the process of bringing a lawsuit against a police officer or police force; and
3. legal representation for families and/or victims in instances of police-involved serious injury or death to facilitate full participation in a Coroner’s Inquests and civil actions.

The impacts of police and policing

The Director of Police Services must develop the following Provincial Policies for all policing agencies in British Columbia:

Recommendation 5: A Provincial Policy on harm reduction which should include:

1. a directive to deprioritize simple possession of controlled substances and an overview of the harms of confiscating substances (including alcohol) from people with addictions and limited resources;
2. a directive to never confiscate new or used syringes, naloxone, and other harm reduction and overdose prevention supplies;
3. a statement that harm reduction supplies, whether new or used, are not a basis for search or investigation; and
4. a directive that local police forces work with service providers to develop bubble zones around safe consumption sites, overdose prevention sites, and other harm reduction sites, taking into consideration policing practices that may deter access including visible presence, arrests in close proximity, undercover operations in and near, and surveillance of people using the service.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

Recommendation 19: Police Services must create a provincial practice direction for police officers upon release of an accused, adopting the following recommendations of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association:

• police should make increased use of their power to release and ensure that any conditions imposed are constitutional and legally permissible under the Criminal Code.
• individuals released from police custody should be proactively informed of the procedures that can be used to vary police-imposed conditions under the Criminal Code; and
• police should release individuals under the most minimally restricting conditions available in the circumstance, taking into consideration an individual’s need to access shelter, social services, health care, and community, as well as the possible disability status of the individual, including addiction.

Service gaps and barriers

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction must make immediate changes to BC’s Income Assistance and Disability Assistance programs including:

Recommendation 27: Increasing access to in-person services for income assistance and disability applicants.

Service gaps and barriers

The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction must make immediate changes to BC’s Income Assistance and Disability Assistance programs including:

Recommendation 28: Ensuring that people living with disabilities can access disability support by:

1. simplifying the application process to reduce wait times and lessen reliance on advocates;
2. providing provincial guidelines for doctors/service providers on how and when to fill out disability forms; and
3. ensuring that hospital social workers are resourced and directed to work with patients in need to apply for disability benefits.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 29: The Legal Services Society of BC must provide legal support for appeals where a person has been denied income assistance or disability assistance.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 30: The Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs must immediately improve the number and accessibility of shelter options to ensure that everyone in BC always has access to a physical location where they can sleep, store belongings, and attend to personal care and hygiene in safety and without threat of displacement or sanctions. To do so they must:

• work in partnership with BC Housing to reinstate nightly turn-away counts at shelters and use data to ensure that there are adequate shelter beds to address the level of need in each municipality;
• with the exception of temporary Extreme Weather Response shelters, recognize that overnight-only shelters are untenable for residents and provide funding to expand shelter hours; and
• provide shelter residents an accessible and independent complaint process.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 31: All government actors and health care providers must recognize the specific and indispensable expertise of people with lived experience. Increase peer-run and peer-delivered services and peer-support positions within government services by:

• developing a provincial advisory board of people with lived experience of homelessness for BC Housing;
• establishing provincial best practices for engaging people with lived experience of poverty, homelessness, and substance use in service delivery modelled on GIPA (Greater Involvement of People living with HIV/AIDS), MIPA (Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV), and NAUWU (Nothing About Us Without Us) principles;
• collaborating with peer-led organizations to audit all provincial services (hospital, health, income assistance, shelter, housing) to identify and fund opportunities for peer engagement in service provision and planning; and
• developing a model for peer-involvement in the design and execution of homeless counts.

Operationalizing stigma-auditing

Recommendation 33: The relevant provincial ministries should engage in extensive education and outreach to legislators and staff across the provincial government, and local governments to introduce the stigma-auditing tool to law and policymakers, and to train stigma auditors.

Operationalizing stigma-auditing

Recommendation 34: In its first year in operation, the BC Human Rights Commission should prioritize stigma-auditing areas of law and policy that most directly impact highly stigmatized populations, including, but not limited to:

• public space governance;
income assistance and disability policy;
• housing policy and residential tenancy law;
• child welfare law and policy;
• policing law and policy;
• health policy related to mental health and substance use; and
• privacy law as it relates to people who live in public space and people who are criminalized as a result of substance use.