The impacts of police and policing

Recommendation 1: The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General and the Attorney General, working in full partnership with historically marginalized communities and communities with high levels of police interactions, must develop a set of guiding values and principles for policing in British Columbia that are grounded in human rights.

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 3: Amending the Police Act to expand the mandate of the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) in order to:

1. ensure that all police officers and forces operating in BC fall under the mandate of the OPCC;
2. ensure that civilian investigators and civilian staff members are responsible for the entirety of the complaint resolution process; and
3. allow the OPCC to audit police complaints each year, particularly where they involve discrimination based on race, gender, poverty, or health status, and publicly report on areas of concern for further investigation or reform.

The impacts of police and policing

Recommendation 9: The Director of Police Services must work with the Independent Investigations Office and the Coroners Service to audit deaths and serious injuries in city cells in BC over the past 10 years, including an analysis of race, disability, housing status, and gender, and, make the findings and recommendations for reform publicly available.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

Recommendation 12: The Government of Canada must amend the Criminal Code to prevent the use and prosecution of discriminatory or destructive behavioural conditions of interim release and sentencing, specifically:

• legislate that conditions imposed on interim release be reasonable and proportionate to the nature and seriousness of the alleged offence and the circumstances of the accused;
• define “drug paraphernalia” as harm reduction medical equipment and prohibit the imposition of conditions that would interfere with the ability to access or possess harm reduction equipment;
• prior to imposing an abstinence condition, require that courts consider a person’s dependence on drugs or alcohol. Abstinence conditions shall not be imposed on people living with addictions, except where doing so is necessary to protect the safety of a victim, witness, or the public, and harm-reduction measures shall be preferred over abstinence;
• limit “red zone” conditions to situations where there is a substantial likelihood that, if released without a red zone, the accused will commit an offence involving violence or serious harm within the red zone and ensure that any red zone is tailored to the alleged offence, the principles of judicial interim release or probation, and circumstances of the individual;
• remove paragraph 504(2.1) (g), the power for police to impose “abstinence” conditions; and
• eliminate criminal sanctions for non-violent breaches of behavioural conditions.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

The Governments of BC and Canada must amend their prosecutorial policy, specifically:

Recommendation 13: Amend the BC Crown Counsel Policy Manual to include a policy on “Conditions of Release” that:

1. aligns with the Criminal Code requirement that an accused be released unconditionally unless their detention or the imposition of conditions is justified;
2. reflects Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence requiring that conditions of release be minimally onerous and that every imposition of more restrictive conditions must be individually justified; and
3. takes into consideration the potential harms of imposing certain conditions on some individuals based on their social condition, race, ability status, housing status, and substance use.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

The Governments of BC and Canada must amend their prosecutorial policy, specifically:

Recommendation 15: Amend the Public Prosecution Service of Canada Deskbook Part 3.18 sections 2 and 5 to:

1. more clearly reflect the Criminal Code requirement that an accused be released unconditionally unless their detention or the imposition of conditions is justified; and
2. take into consideration the potential harms of imposing certain conditions on certain individuals based on their social condition, race, ability status, housing status, and substance use.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

Recommendation 20: The Ministry of Justice and/or Court Services Branch must update any Ministry of Justice databases (e.g. JUSTIN) and related practices, policies, and technology platforms, to ensure that the imposition of bail and sentencing conditions can be tracked in correlation with housing status and race, and that breaches of bail or sentencing can be properly recorded and searched based on the type of condition breached.

Service gaps and barriers & operationalizing stigma-auditing

Recommendation 23: The Province of British Columbia must amend the Human Rights Code, RSBC 1996, c 210 to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on social condition.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 24: The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Health must improve the ability of BC hospitals to meet the needs of people living with the effects of substance use, mental illness, and/or homelessness by:

• auditing experiences in hospitals, beginning with an analysis of people’s experiences where they have been turned away from emergency rooms or discharged and where there have been negative health consequences;
• working with people with lived experience to audit provincial standards for effectively managing substance withdrawal in hospital settings;
• ensuring that all hospitals offer supervised consumption services to patients; and
• working with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to create transitional housing options to ensuring that sick and injured people are not released from the hospital to the streets or to emergency shelter.

Operationalizing stigma-auditing

Recommendation 32: In consultation with experts, including human rights law organizations, trauma specialists, and people with lived experience, the Province of British Columbia should adopt a standardized tool and training protocol for conducting “stigma audits” of current laws, policies, and regulations in BC, and to inform the development of new laws, policies, and regulations.