Post by blackcrowheart on Jul 5, 2007 8:36:12 GMT -5
Just a little guy, left to die in the rain
Seven years too late, but an inquiry into Frank Paul's death still welcome
Paul Willcocks, Special to Times Colonist
Lots of stories are more important right now, I suppose, but it's hard to let go of Frank Paul and the way he died, dumped in a Vancouver alley by police on a cold night.
Maybe it's because he was the kind of guy who needed protecting.
Paul was a skinny little man with damaged hands, a Micmac from New Brunswick who ended up on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, homeless and drinking too much.
It's not such an unusual story. Most of us have seen people just like him on the streets of our communities. You even grow to recognize some of them if you spend much time in downtown Victoria.
And who knows, maybe Paul, then 47, would be dead by now anyway.
Or maybe things would have changed. Maybe he'd be back home in Big Cove, doing better.
But three weeks before Christmas in 1998, two Vancouver police officers found Paul in an alley, semiconscious. They called a patrol wagon.
Video from the jail shows Paul being dragged from the wagon, down a hallway and taken up in an elevator to the floor with cells for holding prisoners. He doesn't move. A nurse walks past twice as he lies on the floor.
Then the video shows Paul being dragged back out by his feet. The patrol wagon tried to take him to a detox centre, where he was rejected. So police left him in an alley.
A few hours later, the officers who picked up Paul the first time found him dead of hypothermia, sprawled half-dressed in the cold and rain.
It's a case that cried out for answers. Why wasn't Paul kept at the jail or taken to hospital, especially when the detox centre wasn't available? What were the police department policies about dealing with semiconscious people? And if they weren't followed, why not?
But nothing happened. No one would probably have known about the case until problems started mounting in the police complaint commissioner's office in 2002. It was revealed then that staff had been pressing the commissioner to call a public inquiry. He refused.
That's when I first wrote about Paul, almost five years ago. It took until 2004, but the new police complaint commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, recommended a public inquiry. The public needs to know how and why Paul died, and what needs to be done to prevent future needless deaths, said Ryneveld.
Rich Coleman, then solicitor general, refused. There had been a coroner's inquiry and an internal police review, he said. That was enough to answer all the questions.
It was a sadly inadequate official response to a suspicious death.
Then this week Greg Fiolotte came forward. He was a corrections officer and says he helped drag Paul to the police van the night he died.
No one from the Vancouver Police Department had ever interviewed him to find out what happened, he said.
And that, in his mind, is evidence that at best the department didn't want to know what really happened and at worst, already knew but didn't want the facts to become public.
It's a disturbing accusation. But how else could one of a handful of witnesses -- and one of the few not part of the police department -- never be interviewed?
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs wants answers. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said the investigation looks like a sham and called on Attorney General Wally Oppal to order a public inquiry.
So does Dana Urban. He was a legal advisor to the police commissioner, one of the people who unsuccessfully argued for an inquiry seven years ago.
Urban is in Kosovo now. He's an international prosecutor with the United Nations, dealing with human rights abuses and war crimes. Despite all he's seen, he told the Globe and Mail, he's had a hard time letting go of Paul's death too.
The most basic Canadian right -- the right to life -- was violated that night, Urban said. The people sworn to protect Paul and entrusted to investigate his death failed him.
"I will never forget the shame I felt, and continue to feel for my country and its people," Urban said.
On Wednesday, Solicitor General John Les said he didn't really see a reason for an inquiry.
But yesterday, Les wisely changed his mind, apparently with the help of Premier Gordon Campbell. The new information is "troubling," he said. An inquiry will be held.
It's been a long time since Paul died in that alley. For seven years efforts to find out what happened have been blocked.
We owe him, and ourselves, some answers, about what happened and whether anything needs to be done to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Footnote: The renewed interest in Paul's death comes at a critical time in the government's new relationship with First Nations. Three treaties will soon face ratification votes and despite progress on some fronts frustration is growing with the pace of change. First Nations leaders have had a larger concern about police treatment of natives for some time. Campbell has headed off a conflict by allowing an inquiry.
pwillcocks@tc.canwest.com
Seven years too late, but an inquiry into Frank Paul's death still welcome
Paul Willcocks, Special to Times Colonist
Lots of stories are more important right now, I suppose, but it's hard to let go of Frank Paul and the way he died, dumped in a Vancouver alley by police on a cold night.
Maybe it's because he was the kind of guy who needed protecting.
Paul was a skinny little man with damaged hands, a Micmac from New Brunswick who ended up on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, homeless and drinking too much.
It's not such an unusual story. Most of us have seen people just like him on the streets of our communities. You even grow to recognize some of them if you spend much time in downtown Victoria.
And who knows, maybe Paul, then 47, would be dead by now anyway.
Or maybe things would have changed. Maybe he'd be back home in Big Cove, doing better.
But three weeks before Christmas in 1998, two Vancouver police officers found Paul in an alley, semiconscious. They called a patrol wagon.
Video from the jail shows Paul being dragged from the wagon, down a hallway and taken up in an elevator to the floor with cells for holding prisoners. He doesn't move. A nurse walks past twice as he lies on the floor.
Then the video shows Paul being dragged back out by his feet. The patrol wagon tried to take him to a detox centre, where he was rejected. So police left him in an alley.
A few hours later, the officers who picked up Paul the first time found him dead of hypothermia, sprawled half-dressed in the cold and rain.
It's a case that cried out for answers. Why wasn't Paul kept at the jail or taken to hospital, especially when the detox centre wasn't available? What were the police department policies about dealing with semiconscious people? And if they weren't followed, why not?
But nothing happened. No one would probably have known about the case until problems started mounting in the police complaint commissioner's office in 2002. It was revealed then that staff had been pressing the commissioner to call a public inquiry. He refused.
That's when I first wrote about Paul, almost five years ago. It took until 2004, but the new police complaint commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, recommended a public inquiry. The public needs to know how and why Paul died, and what needs to be done to prevent future needless deaths, said Ryneveld.
Rich Coleman, then solicitor general, refused. There had been a coroner's inquiry and an internal police review, he said. That was enough to answer all the questions.
It was a sadly inadequate official response to a suspicious death.
Then this week Greg Fiolotte came forward. He was a corrections officer and says he helped drag Paul to the police van the night he died.
No one from the Vancouver Police Department had ever interviewed him to find out what happened, he said.
And that, in his mind, is evidence that at best the department didn't want to know what really happened and at worst, already knew but didn't want the facts to become public.
It's a disturbing accusation. But how else could one of a handful of witnesses -- and one of the few not part of the police department -- never be interviewed?
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs wants answers. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said the investigation looks like a sham and called on Attorney General Wally Oppal to order a public inquiry.
So does Dana Urban. He was a legal advisor to the police commissioner, one of the people who unsuccessfully argued for an inquiry seven years ago.
Urban is in Kosovo now. He's an international prosecutor with the United Nations, dealing with human rights abuses and war crimes. Despite all he's seen, he told the Globe and Mail, he's had a hard time letting go of Paul's death too.
The most basic Canadian right -- the right to life -- was violated that night, Urban said. The people sworn to protect Paul and entrusted to investigate his death failed him.
"I will never forget the shame I felt, and continue to feel for my country and its people," Urban said.
On Wednesday, Solicitor General John Les said he didn't really see a reason for an inquiry.
But yesterday, Les wisely changed his mind, apparently with the help of Premier Gordon Campbell. The new information is "troubling," he said. An inquiry will be held.
It's been a long time since Paul died in that alley. For seven years efforts to find out what happened have been blocked.
We owe him, and ourselves, some answers, about what happened and whether anything needs to be done to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Footnote: The renewed interest in Paul's death comes at a critical time in the government's new relationship with First Nations. Three treaties will soon face ratification votes and despite progress on some fronts frustration is growing with the pace of change. First Nations leaders have had a larger concern about police treatment of natives for some time. Campbell has headed off a conflict by allowing an inquiry.
pwillcocks@tc.canwest.com