Vancouver police to defend against accusation of racism at human-rights tribunal

Vancouver police
The Vancouver Police Department said it wouldnā€™t comment on an issue thatā€™s before the human-rights tribunal.

The governing body of Vancouverā€™s police force, the Vancouver Police Board, is set to appear at a human-rights tribunal after a woman accused officers of mistreating her because she is Indigenous.

The woman, Deborah Campbell, claims that police were demeaning and aggressive toward her, while treating white people nearby with respect.

The incident happened in 2016 around midnight between July 15 and 16 in East Vancouver. Campbell was outside with her two dogs, witnessing her adult son getting arrested.

ā€œTwo officers ā€¦ grabbed me and dragged me and my chihuahua dogs about 20 feet away, without explanation,ā€ Campbellā€™s complaint reads, adding that one of the officers left bruises on her arm.

Campbellā€™s claims have not been proven at the human-rights tribunal, and the VPB denies any wrongdoing.

ā€œThe police officers were saying, ā€˜Why donā€™t you go home?ā€™ ā€ Campbellā€™s claim continues. ā€œI answered that he is my son and that I was not leaving,ā€ and then ā€œone of the male officers deliberately obstructed my view so that I could not fully hear or see what was going on.ā€

Two Vancouver police officers accused of harassment in the Downtown Eastside

Meanwhile, Campbell claims, two other people who witnessed the arrest, who are both Caucasian, were treated respectfully.

The case is scheduled to be heard in front of the The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal from Dec. 4-7.

A document submitted by the Vancouver Police Board in response to Campbellā€™s claim alleges she was interfering with police work and ā€œcausing a disturbanceā€ while they were trying to arrest her son and another person for assault with a weapon and uttering threats. Both were found to be carrying knives.

ā€œShe was yelling loudly and she was standing close to the officer and suspects,ā€ it reads. She was ā€œrepeatedly asked to step back to provide a safe space for the police to deal with the parties in custody, but she refused,ā€ so she was ā€œescortedā€ a short distance away from the scene.

Human-rights lawyer Clea Parfitt, who is not involved in the case but read the filed documents, said itā€™s clear that Campbell and the police have different views of the facts.

ā€œThe parties donā€™t agree exactly on what occurred,ā€ Parfitt said, adding that ā€œlike most human-rights complaints, the success of the complaint is going to depend a bit on whose version of the facts is accepted.ā€

The Vancouver Police Department declined a request for an interview, saying it wouldnā€™t comment on an issue thatā€™s before the human-rights tribunal. The VPBā€™s spokesperson Mayor Gregor Robertson was not made available for an interview, and Campbellā€™s lawyer Amber Prince told StarMetro that she and Campbell did not want to be interviewed.

But in documents submitted to the tribunal, Prince provided further detail on Campbellā€™s claim.

ā€œShe was demeaned, intimidated, harassed and disrespected as a visibly Indigenous woman, while Caucasian bystanders were treated well,ā€ it reads. Police ā€œtreated her concerns and distress about her son and how the police would treat him as unimportant.ā€

Parfitt said she will be interested to see whether either side presents evidence on what the standard procedures are in terms of allowing bystanders to witness an arrest.

Princeā€™s documents add that Campbell claims the police were aware that one of the other bystanders, a Caucasian man, filmed the officers when they were dragging her away. And, even though he was ā€œchallengingā€ the way the police were treating her and her son, the police treated him respectfully.

In the documents, Prince suggests the police may have been retaliating against Campbell for a formal complaint she and her son made to the police, saying itā€™s likely the officers on scene knew her history.

ā€œIt is possible both (Campbell and her son) were being harassed, intimidated and retaliated against for bringing a complaint against the police in 2014,ā€ Princeā€™s statement reads.

Parfitt also said that, because of a widely held concern that Indigenous people are sometimes treated unfairly by police, itā€™s possible that Campbell would have a greater need to observe the arrest.

ā€œEven if their treatment (of Campbell) wasnā€™t different (than how they would have treated her if she were Caucasian), I donā€™t know if it was or wasnā€™t, that still might be discriminatory treatment because she might be entitled to more opportunity to watch and more opportunity to be present, and be a witness and a bystander, than someone who is Caucasian,ā€ she said.

Source: Tessa Vikander is a Vancouver-based reporter covering identity and inequality. Follow her on Twitter:Ā @tessavikander

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