Police Act complaint to
B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
about the Vancouver Police Professional Standards cover-up
of VPD constable Taylor Robinson

From Greg Klein, January 27, 2014

 

This is a formal complaint against Vancouver police officers or former VPD officers who covered up VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman, Sandy Davidsen. I don’t have the officers’ names but they can be determined through an investigation. The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner might already have their names.

The cover-up took place during June and July of 2010. However some key information was made public only last November, so this complaint should be admissible despite the delay. Moreover this is an extremely serious case of deceit among police who were responsible for investigating other police, so public interest requires an investigation.

But because the OPCC colluded in the Vancouver police cover-up, the agency is in no position to rule on the admissibility of this complaint or monitor an investigation. Police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe, deputy commissioner Rollie Woods and other OPCC staff involved in the cover-up must step down while an independent body handles this complaint.

I’m acting as a third party unconnected with Davidsen.

Robinson shoved Davidsen to the sidewalk for no apparent reason on June 9, 2010. According to dates provided by Lowe’s November 12, 2013, Notice of Public Hearing, Vancouver Police Professional Standards officers learned about the incident by June 11, 2010, when they interviewed the victim. They did not order a Police Act investigation, order a criminal investigation, or inform the OPCC, as they were legally required to do. Instead, VPD Professional Standards conducted a cover-up.

The OPCC learned about Robinson’s actions on June 28, 2010, but from the victim, not the police. At that point Lowe, Woods and their staff were legally required to order a Police Act investigation into Robinson’s actions and another Police Act investigation into the VPD Professional Standards officers who covered up Robinson’s actions. Additionally, Lowe, Woods and their staff were required to monitor the investigations while they were taking place and provide direction if the OPCC believed the investigations were handled inadequately. Lowe and his staff did none of those things. They colluded in the Vancouver police cover-up.

Media learned about Robinson’s actions on July 22, 2010, when the B.C. Civil Liberties Association released surveillance video. It was only after the extensive publicity that began on July 22, 2010, that the OPCC and VPD decided that Robinson should be investigated. No investigation has ever been ordered into the VPD cover-up, in which the OPCC colluded.

Further evidence of the OPCC’s dishonest handling of this case comes from a letter by Rollie Woods that was posted on the Georgia Straight website on December 5, 2013. In the letter Woods falsely claims that Lowe has ordered a public hearing “in particular to look into why the police did not notify this office of the pushing incident and instead undertook some type of informal resolution process that is outside of the Police Act.” That statement is completely false and must be considered a deliberate lie. Woods had no excuse for thinking his statement was in any way accurate. Even if Woods did somehow manage to accidentally misinform, the OPCC was required to issue a public correction. The fact that the OPCC didn’t further suggests that Woods deliberately lied to the public and did so with Lowe’s knowledge. That further shows their lack of integrity and unsuitability to handle this complaint.

Greg Klein

Read more about the Stan Lowe/Rollie Woods/OPCC cover-up
of VPD constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman
Read more about B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Read more news and comment about police accountability in B.C.