B.C.’s sham legislative
inquiries into policing
MLAs consistently reject police accountability,
OPCC reform and civilian investigation
of cop sexual misconduct
Since at least 2012, all-party committees appointed by successive provincial governments have been conducting bogus hearings into B.C. policing. That follows the practice, in both committees and the legislature at large, in which absolutely no MLA will ever consider evidence pointing to flagrant ethical corruption at B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, consider reforming the agency’s lack of transparency and accountability, or introduce civilian investigation of police sexual misconduct.
The unanimity of committee members from all parties strongly suggests they act on orders from above. That would explain the way MLAs conduct these hearings, reject or brush off legitimate input, and make recommendations ranging from inadequate to disturbing and downright weird.
MLA obedience can be explained by MLA qualifications and motivations for public office. Most committee members consist of politicians unimpressive even by B.C. standards. They get a considerable pay boost for taking part, far more than most of them could earn in a real job. Compliance with unanimous decisions qualifies them for further remunerative appointments and, for government MLAs, possible cabinet promotion.
Reading Hansard transcripts of committee proceedings challenges any notion that committee members write the reports and make the recommendations attributed to them. The MLAs appear far too ignorant, inarticulate and disorganized for such a task.
(The implications of consistent MLA compliance, by the way, remain beyond the comprehension of B.C.-quality journalists like Postmedia’s Vaughn Palmer. He’s spent most of his life covering the B.C. legislature yet thinks these committees consist of well-informed people who make their own decisions.)
In unanimous decisions over the years, committee members have repeatedly blocked citizen input; rigged the process to exclude participation; used an absurd rationale to reject citizens’ written submissions; appointed police complaint commissioner Stan Lowe, Canada’s most outspoken advocate of lethal police violence; reappointed and, on his retirement, thanked Lowe despite alarming evidence of his OPCC/cop cover-ups; welcomed ex-cop, corrupt deputy commissioner and serial liar Rollie Woods; refused to impose transparency and accountability on B.C.’s secretive and unaccountable OPCC; and rejected calls for independent investigation of cop sexual misconduct including rape.
Current solicitor general Garry Begg took part in three committees. The ex-cop joined his fellow committee members in brushing off calls for OPCC transparency and accountability, and for independent investigation of cop sexual misconduct including rape.
Begg and his collaborators did so by signing off on reports that appeared to be written by others, probably bureaucratic hacks working under orders from the ex-cops who hold senior positions in the SG’s department.
The last report, however, was downright weird. Highly nebulous and thoroughly confused, its recommendations seem intended to evade genuine Police Act reform by manipulating and obfuscating identity politics. So the report contains lots of confused blather about woke issues and vaguely recommends different resolution procedures for different ethnic and identity groups, with some kind of undefined “oversight” by natives and even children.
That’s right, children. Did 10 committee members unanimously decide that? Or did 10 committee members sign off on the report without noticing that—in other words sign off on a report they didn’t even read, let alone write?
The report’s vagueness, not to mention weirdness, leaves lots of room for interpretation. Additionally strange, the report was the second in just a few years for the same avowed purpose: to overhaul B.C.’s Police Act.
No explanation has been given for the largely redundant second exercise. No one in media has asked. None of B.C.’s salaried “official” activists in the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society and native groups have spoken out.
Nor has anyone asked why no action has been taken on either set of recommendations, except for a couple of Police Act tweaks.
Here are some posts about the legislative committees, their proceedings and their recommendations. This is by far the most comprehensive reporting and commentary ever done on the subject, which has been neglected by B.C.’s media and social justice phonies.
A B.C. perspective on
Paul Palango’s RCMP exposé
This province could have written the federal/Nova Scotia
Mass Casualty Commission playbook. More…
B.C.’s latest solicitor general:
Garry Begg
What better candidate for a cop-stooge job
than a proven cop stooge who’s also an ex-cop? More…
Decolonizing corruption
B.C. wants to retain cop cover-ups, but with
native participation under a confused, weird
and racially exclusive Police Act. More…
At last, a (partial) advocate
for police accountability
But the B.C. Human Rights Commission emphasizes
identity politics at the cost of some issues
—and some people. More…
B.C. Police Act reform:
What MLAs don’t want to know
Another legislative committee will likely evade
the problem of OPCC secrecy and immunity. More…
An open letter to the
Union of British Columbia
Indian Chiefs and the
B.C. Civil Liberties Association
Police cover-ups are more common than you might realize.
But you’re uniquely positioned to address the problem. More...
The cop status quo matters
B.C. stands ready to manipulate identity politics
in support of OPCC corruption. More...
Three principles drive
Adam Olsen’s career
He opposes police accountability, sells out natives and
lacks environmental commitment. But the Green MLA
stands firm on his pay, perks and pension. More...
Just following orders
Some reflections on how B.C.’s arrogant but subservient
political culture props up corrupt institutions. More...
The cop status quo stands,
thanks to five self-serving MLAs
Another sham legislative committee entrenches
the OPCC’s lack of transparency and accountability. More...
Rigged input, predictable output
A legislative committee will likely recommend
“arm’s-length” investigation of cops and distinct
consideration for natives. But expect the MLAs
to ignore the OPCC’s lack of transparency
and accountability. More…
A contradiction further exposes
the OPCC whitewash
The legislative committee’s final report confirms seven MLAs deliberately
blocked public input from their sham inquiry into police complaints. More...
BC Liberal MLA Gordon Hogg’s
hypocrisy
about “fiduciary duty”
He spurned his duty to act on OPCC corruption.
But to save his political skin
Hogg calls for an inquiry into a much lesser scandal. More...
MLAs Murray Coell and
Kathy Corrigan lie to the media
Such is their determination to whitewash B.C.’s Office of the Police
Complaint Commissioner that they resort to obvious dishonesty. More...
Police interests welcomed
but public input ignored
B.C.’s auditor general and seven MLAs set out to whitewash
the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner.
But they
inadvertently confirmed the OPCC lacks
transparency and accountability. More...
B.C.’s auditor general praises the OPCC.
But how was the audit conducted?
The auditor general and a committee of MLAs seem to have evaded public input
into the audit of B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. More...
Time to examine B.C.’s secretive OPCC
Legislative committee asked to call an inquiry
into the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. More...
Four cases that show the dishonesty
of B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Stan T. Lowe, Rollie Woods, Dirk Ryneveld and Bruce M. Brown are liars.
They lie obviously, complacently and arrogantly. More...
More reason for cynicism
about the MLAs who will audit the OPCC
Another MLA committee sees nothing wrong with B.C.’s
conflict of interest commissioner being in a conflict of interest himself. More...
Legislative committee to examine
B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Will that mean long-overdue scrutiny or a whitewash
of this secretive, unaccountable agency? More...