Police and coroner the focus of inquiry

The Frank Paul Inquiry is in phase two with the focus on the response of the Vancouver Police department and the B.C. Coroners Service, but their response is something the Aboriginal participants say they already know. Now they want justice and change.
"Justice, would be us revealing everything that happened to Frank Paul from the moment he died right up until this point where we are having an inquiry into his death and make the recommendations that would evolve out of this report," said Dan David, vice president of the United Native Nations (UNN).
According to David, the UNN is the first organization to file a complaint with the police about how Frank Paul died in 2002.
The inquiry started in November 2007 with phase one to provide the Paul family with a complete record of the circumstances of his death. Phase three and four of the inquiry will be about current health care and social services and current rules, policies and procedures of public bodies in Vancouver.
"The interesting part is what's coming up. One that the UNN wanted to be part of as a participant to help shape the terms of reference for the inquiry and obviously it was everything that happened after Frank Paul was found dead in the alley," said David.
"The past ten years since Paul died have been nothing but a cover up by the police and the Attorney General of B.C., said David.
Frank Paul a 47-year-old from Big Cove First Nation, New Brunswick was found dead on Vancouver's downtown eastside in December 1998 after being dropped off by police the night before when temperatures dropped below zero.
Paul's immediate family who live in Big Cove were told by police several versions of how he died including that he was a victim of a hit and run. The family didn't know he was in police custody at the time of or shortly before his death.
David has many questions about why there wasn't an inquest with regards to how the Crown Counsel and the Coroners' Service handled the investigation into the death of Paul. Yet, ultimately he said, they want police policies on how Aboriginal people are treated to be changed for once and for all.
"We feel that of the 45 or 48 deaths that we are aware of over the last 30 years that a good majority of them have even deeper story lines than Frank Paul at this point. He is just representing only one of many, many deaths in custody," said David.
"The UNN wants to shine the light on many other cases where Aboriginal people have died in custody after this inquiry is over to show that it is a systemic thing," said David.
The UNN is conducting it's own investigation into how many police in-custody deaths there may be by asking Elders and other traditional peoples in their areas to remember instances where relatives died in custody without explanation.
"The hard thing for us to establish in a court of law is 'Are you racist?" said David. His concern is about young people unaware of their rights who continue to face emotional and physical abuse from police. He said right now Aboriginal people don't have the tools to fight back and reshape the relationship between Aboriginal people and the police.
When Windspeaker asked if the lack of resources in Vancouver's eastside contributed to why Paul died, David pointed to the legal undertaking that police have.
"Convenient obviously to their interest, that would be true. Quite clearly the Aboriginal people, our people that live in the Downtown Eastside are completely under-serviced. There is no housing and health services are third world. The fact that they are excusing that and saying that Frank Paul was a victim of his own circumstances, completely untrue, the police officers that were in control of Mr. Paul had a legal duty and a legal obligation of care and they flouted that obligation and it didn't result in any criminal charges," said David.
Two years after Paul's' death, two Vancouver police officers were given one and two-day suspensions. One was charged with discreditable conduct and the other for neglect of duty
In Vancouver the phrase "breaching outside the area" is quoted by the Sergeant on duty at the city jail in his instructions to the police wagon driver that took Paul's motionless body out of the cell that night. Jail surveillance videotape released by Dirk Ryneveld, police complaint commissioner for Vancouver to the Paul family reveals Paul was dragged in from the jail in a "helpless state" into the police wagon.
Breaching outside the area means to take the person in custory to an undsiclosed location and leave him or her there alone. In Saskatoon, this is known as "starlight tours" and that came to light during the Neil Stonechild inquiry, which took more than 10 years to materialize.
In 2000, Darrell Night said he was thrown out of a police cruiser on the outskirts of the city on Jan. 28, when the temperature had dipped to a chilly -23 C.
Soon after, the bodies of two other Aboriginal men who had frozen to death were found in the same area.
Night's complaints about his treatment lead to the creation of an RCMP task force and to unlawful confinement convictions against two Saskatoon police officers who later lost their jobs.
Former officers, Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson were given eight-month jail sentences.
Shortly after, the province announced a public inquiry into the 1990 freezing death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild, whose body was found on the edge of Saskatoon.
"It is becoming more and more apparent that Frank Paul died while in police custody. Police policing and investigating themselves is colonialist in nature and built to fail for our people and the poor," said Kat Norris with the Indigenous Action Movement.
Norris is also concerned about the crown's request for immunity and the legitimacy of the justice system.
"Should Canada's law enforcement get away with yet another death of one of our people in custody?" she asked. Society needs to wake up to the reality that we are Indigenous people of this continent." In fact, we should continue to battle legally sanctioned systemic racism and genocide," she said.
"The outcome of the inquiry is to create recommendations that should lead to a healthier relationship with police and more First Nations inclusion."
A final report to the Attorney General is expected to be released by May 31, 2008.