BCCLA Condemns Unlawful Canada Day Searches
BC Transit and the Victoria Police Department to implement a policy of unlawful mandatory searches during Canada Day celebrations.
News release >>
BC Transit and the Victoria Police Department to implement a policy of unlawful mandatory searches during Canada Day celebrations.
News release >>
The BCCLA filed a complaint today with the Vancouver Police Board, asking them to clarify VPD policy on seizing cameras. The BCCLA says that Sunday’s allegation by a Vancouver Province photographer brings to three the number of high-profile allegations against the VPD concerning the seizure of cameras in recent memory.
After issuing a press release saying that all Tasers tested by the RCMP had met manufacturer specifications, this week the police force released documents to the BCCLA that indicate that two of thirty tasers tested actually failed to meet those standards. In response to the revelations, the BCCLA is calling for a review of the RCMP actions on the file by the Minister of Public Safety, and for responsibility for Taser safety testing to be taken away from the RCMP.
News release >>
The BCCLA blasted proposed changes to the British Columbia Police Act saying that the changes target watchdogs and limit their participation, force complainants to sit down with police officers they are complaining against, and still exempts all documents in the complaint process from Freedom of Information requests.
News release >>
The BCCLA has released an open letter to the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) asking them to stay out of City Hall for intelligence gathering purposes. A report obtained by the BCCLA indicates that three plain-clothes members of the RCMP coordinated ISU attended City Hall to gather information about individuals attending a City Council meeting to speak against municipal Olympic intiatives.
The BCCLA, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Youthco Aids Society, the Asian Society for the Intervention of Aids, BC Persons With AIDS Society, the B.C. Positive Women’s Network and AIDS Vancouver issued an open letter to the Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Police Board today outlining concerns about the 2009 VPD business plan and its potential to restrict access to basic health care for Downtown Eastside residents.
Letter >>
February 10, 2009
An ad hoc coalition of organizations concerned with issues of access to basic healthcare for people living with HIV, or at risk of infection from the disease, are releasing an open letter to the Vancouver Police Department concerning the VPD’s 2009 draft business plan at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
News release >>
The BCCLA applauds the BC Court of Appeal judgment released last week in Ward v. Province of British Columbia and Ward v. City of Vancouver, which holds that damages are an appropriate remedy when police or other government agents inadvertently infringe an individual’s constitutional rights.
News release >>
In their latest report on Taser use in Canada released last week, the RCMP appear to have acknowledged that between January and March of 2008, officers used Tasers on one cooperative individual and eight “passive resistant” individuals. RCMP policy changed in December of 2007 to restrict the use of Tasers only in situations of active resistance.
News release >>
The BCCLA says that the example of the three police officers arrested early Wednesday morning is further justification for reform of the police complaints system.
News release >>
