Half of B.C. first responders who file mental-health claims don’t receive the help they’ve requested

Lorimer Shenher was a Vancouver cop for 24 years before finally leaving the force with a PTSD diagnosis. He warns many B.C. first responders aren't receiving the help with mental health that they need, in part because of a difficult claims process at WorkSafeBC.
Lorimer Shenher was a Vancouver cop for 24 years before finally leaving the force with a PTSD diagnosis. He warns many B.C. first responders aren’t receiving the help with mental health that they need, in part because of a difficult claims process at WorkSafeBC.

Lorimer Shenher estimates that less than five percent of B.C. first responders who need help with mental health ever ask for it. That’s only a guess, he said in a telephone interview. But it’s an educated one.

Shenher was an officer with the Vancouver Police Department for 24 years, before leaving the force with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2013. He’s also the author of That Lonely Section of Hell, a book about the investigation of women missing from the Downtown Eastside and the prosecution of serial killer Robert Pickton. The book recounts Shenher’s lead role in that investigation, and the debilitating toll it took on his mental health.

In a telephone interview, he discussed the challenges that B.C.’s first responders—firefighters, police officers, and paramedics—can encounter on their way to getting help with conditions such as PTSD.

 Shenher argued that because relatively few first responders who ask for help, WorkSafeBC should make it as easy as possible for them to receive it.

“I think there are much higher percentages of people in those professions that need help that aren’t asking for it,” he said. “When they do finally acknowledge to themselves that they are struggling, it takes a huge amount of courage and faith to put a claim into WorkSafe.”

Yet roughly half of B.C. first responders who do file a mental-health claim with WorkSafeBC do not receive the assistance they are looking for.

According to WorkSafeBC data first reported on by the Tyee and updated for the Straight, for the period July 2012 to December 2015, only 51 percent of 277 B.C. first responders who filed a mental-health claim saw their case approved. (These statistics exclude the RCMP and Transit Police.)

In a telephone interview, Jennifer Leyen, director of special care services for WorkSafeBC, emphasized those numbers do not mean 49 percent of claims were rejected.

She supplied a statistical breakdown showing that of 136 first responders’ mental-health claims not approved, 15 percent were stamped “no adjudication required”, which means that paperwork was only filed for “informational purposes” and did not include a claim for health-care costs or lost wages. Another 32 percent of disallowed claims were suspended, meaning the applicant dropped out of the claims process before a resolution was reached.

Leyen also emphasized that the acceptance rate for mental-health claims filed by first responders was significantly higher than that of all mental-health claims. That number was just 26 percent.

“We accept a significantly higher percentage of first-responder claims than we do any other employer group,” Leyen said. “It is double.”

But she conceded WorkSafeBC accepts a smaller percentage of mental-health claims than it does of the claims it receives as a whole (the bulk of which involve physical injuries). According to Leyen, the acceptance rate for all WorkSafeBC claims hovers around 91 or 92 percent.

“Because the mental-health legislation is very specific about what gets accepted under this part of our legislation, there is much more adjudication required,” she explained. “And we do have a higher disallow rate.”

Leyen noted that changes enacted in July 2012 broadened the scope of mental-health claims deemed eligible for WorkSafeBC compensation. Whereas the rules once said an individual had to be on the scene of a traumatic event—a car accident, for example—now they also cover mental-health challenges that can result from what WorkSafeBC calls “work-place stressors”.

Shenher benefited directly from that legislative change. His claim was initially rejected on the grounds he had not spent time on the farm where Pickton took his victims. It was only accepted by WorkSafeBC when it was reviewed again under the revised legislation.

“I understand how difficult it is to get your head around how PTSD manifests itself,” he said. “It is really weird, the things you can do, the things that you can’t do, the things that trigger you, and the things that are okay. It’s different for everybody.”

At the same time, Shenher questioned whether there’s a need for an arduous review process of mental-health claims. He suggested there’s already such a degree of stigma around mental health, especially in the tradition-bound environment of a police department, that only people with a very pressing need for help ask for it.

Shane Simpson, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Hastings, worked with first responders to draft a private member’s bill that would see WorkSafeBC handle first responders’ mental-health claims with a “presumptive” approach.

“For somebody who was diagnosed with that [PTSD] who is a first responder, the claim would be accepted immediately, without any further processes, unless there was a glaring reason to review it,” Simpson explained in a telephone interview.

He said he introduced that bill last March, but, without government support, he doesn’t expect it to go anywhere.

Simpson maintains that a presumptive approach to mental-health claims is important because a mental-health challenge is very different from a physical injury. He said a condition like PTSD can make the WorksafeBC claims process seem especially daunting, hence the organization’s high percentage of suspended mental-health claims.

“One of the challenges with PTSD is, it’s an area where, because of people’s health condition, they get frustrated,” he said. “And numbers of them don’t follow through to the end of that [WorkSafeBC] process, because of their level of depression.”

The Tyee’s May 20 article presents the stories of several first responders who struggled with long and difficult processes of filing mental-health claims with WorkSafeBC. Shenher recalled how hard the process was for him before his claim was finally accepted in 2012.

“And when you get denied—” Shenher paused. “It’s devastating.”

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This article was originally published at Straight.com on May 25, 2016.

Timeline of transit police shooting fits troubling pattern of fatal encounters with B.C. police

An independent body has found transit police should be cleared of any wrongdoing in the December 2014 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old First Nations man named Naverone Woods.
An independent body has found transit police should be cleared of any wrongdoing in the December 2014 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old First Nations man named Naverone Woods.

Today (May 16) new details were released about the death of Naverone Woods, a 23-year-old First Nations man who was shot and killed by transit police in December 2014.

A report by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIOBC)—which cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing—includes a time line for the shooting. It notes that one of the first officers on the scene at a Safeway in Surrey fired the shots that killed Woods within 60 seconds of their arrival.

At 8:03 a.m., Woods entered the Safeway, according to the report. At 8:07 a.m., 911 received a call wherein Woods was reported to be stabbing himself with a knife.

Two minutes later, at 8:09 a.m., two transit police officers arrived and entered the Safeway. That same minute, two shots were fired and Woods was on the ground.

He was pronounced dead at Royal Columbia Hospital at 9:27 a.m.

Helen Slinger is a Vancouver-based documentarian whose recent film Hold Your Fire focused on police shootings involving a person experiencing a mental-health crisis. She told the Straight that the time line of the Woods shooting resembles many cases she reviewed for her film.

“It is very much a pattern,” Slinger said in a telephone interview. “Police are going in too fast, too hard.”

In researching Hold Your Fire, Slinger and fellow journalist  Yvette Brend read hundreds of coroner reports from across Canada. In B.C. alone, they found that between the years 2004 and 2014, 28 people were shot and killed by police or RCMP while experiencing a mental-health crisis.

“After two years of research it took to do that documentary, it was the one thing that finally, really jumped out at me,” she said. “That in so many of these high-profile police shootings of persons in mental distress…police just do not take the time to back up.”

High-profile cases

Stringer listed off a number of fatal police shootings that she described as similar to the Woods case in that officers fired their weapons within less than three minutes of their first encounter with their suspect.

In November 2014, Vancouver police officers shot and killed Phuong Na (Tony) Du less than two minutes after they arrived to apprehend him at the intersection of Knight Street and East 41st Avenue.

In July 2013, Toronto police shot and killed 18-year-old Sammy Yatim within one minute of the first officer arriving on the scene.

In August 2007, a Vancouver animator named Paul Boyd was shot by police on Granville Street. Less than three minutes had passed since the first officer had intervened.

In 2004, Christopher Reid was shot by Toronto police, also within three minutes of their arrival.

Slinger also mentioned Robert Dziekański, who, although not shot with a gun, died after RCMP repeatedly tasered him almost immediately after meeting Dziekański at Vancouver International Airport in October 2007.

The pattern Slinger says she’s noticed in coroner reports from across Canada mirrors findings of the Straight’s own analysis for British Columbia.

In February 2015, the Straight published a review of more than 120 coroner reports that dated from 2007 to 2014. During that period, there were 99 incidents where someonedied during an interaction with police.

An update the Straight published in December 2015 looked specifically at deaths involving firearms. It revealed an increase in those incidents. And, echoing Slinger’s findings, the Straight’s investigation revealed that the first few minutes or even seconds of an encounter often meant the difference between life and death.

Difficult circumstances

The IIOBC’s report on Woods describes difficult circumstances for the first transit police officers who arrive at the Surrey Safeway that morning.

Multiple eyewitnesses are quoted there describing the young man as holding two knives, failing to respond when people tried to intervene, and repeatedly inflicting harm on himself.

Those anecdotes support one another in stating that police repeatedly shouted warnings before any shots were fired. “Drop the knife,”, “Get down,” and “We’ll shoot,” people heard the officers say.

The witnesses are also in agreement that Woods “lunged” or was “moving towards” the officers when they met him just inside the store’s entrance.

A Safeway security guard told IIOBC investigators he estimated the length of time officers had their guns drawn before firing was between 10 and 12 seconds.

Transit police spokesperson Anne Drennan told the Straight she couldn’t comment on specifics pending the completion of investigations by the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner and the B.C. Coroners Service.

But Drennan emphasized that transit police officers receive the same basic training as every police and RCMP officer in B.C. She emphasized that this includes instructions on mental health and the appropriate use of force.

“Since January 2012, the province of B.C. sets binding standards to ensure that B.C. police officers are trained to use crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques,” she said.

The province requires that officers receive a refresher on those topics every three years. The IIOBC report confirms that both officers involved received that training in July 2014.

A larger problem

Doug King is a Pivot Legal Society lawyer who keeps a close eye on police-involved deaths. He told the Straight the fact that the IIOBC cleared the officers of any wrongdoing is actually indicative of a larger problem.

“We know that this is the legal standard, currently,” King explained. “That if you’ve got someone who’s presenting with an edged weapon and they are physically advancing on an officer, the legal test is, basically, that at that point lethal force is justified.”

King asked why the officers were not equipped with alternative weapons that could have been used without killing Woods. He noted the IIOBC’s report concludes with the same question.

Like Slinger, King told the Straight that details in the IIOBC’s report fit a pattern.

“I would say it’s almost déjà vu,” he said. “We see these cases where the officers are not able to contain the individual until the appropriate resources arrive.”

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This article originally appeared in print and online at Straight.com on May 16, 2016.

B.C. RCMP officers at centre of sharp rise in fatal police shootings

The family of Naverone Woods, a 23-year-old First Nations man who was fatally shot by transit police, is still waiting for answers about why guns were used.
The family of Naverone Woods, a 23-year-old First Nations man who was fatally shot by transit police, is still waiting for answers about why guns were used.

December 28 marks one year having passed since the death of Naverone Woods, a 23-year-old First Nations man who was shot and killed by transit police at a grocery store in Surrey.

On the phone from Hazelton, B.C., one of two Interior towns where Woods grew up, sister-in-law Tracey Woods said the family is still waiting for answers.

“We just want to have some kind of closure,” she explained. “And to know that there was an investigation done, that this case wasn’t just pushed aside.”

Tracey, whom a neighbour described as “like a stepmother” to Naverone, said she has questions about what efforts were made to deescalate the situation before force was deemed necessary, and why guns were used at all.

“We always compare it to a big grizzly bear that they will shoot, put to sleep, and relocate,” she continued. “How come they couldn’t use a Taser or something rather than drawing their weapons?”

Woods was the eighth British Columbian to die in a police-involved incident in 2014, according to a database maintained by the Georgia Straight. So far in 2015, that number stands at 11, the most for any year since 2009.

Last February, the Straight reported that a stark pattern emerged from an analysis of dozens of deaths involving B.C. authorities dating back to 2007: of 99 police-involved deaths investigated by the B.C. Coroners Service or scheduled for investigation, 90 percent involved a mental-health component, substance abuse, or both.

Now a review of that database updated for 2015 reveals another pattern: as deaths have increased, so has the frequency with which guns were involved in those incidents.

In 2015, there were seven fatal police shootings in B.C. That was up from five the previous year, two in 2013, four in 2012, five in 2011, three in 2010, and seven in 2009.

Six of those seven shootings in 2015 involved the RCMP. That compares to two during each of the years 2014, 2013, and 2012, and four in 2011, three in 2010, and five in 2009. Fatal RCMP shootings were geographically dispersed across the province. One exception is Surrey, where RCMP officers have shot and killed seven people since 2009.

Josh Paterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said that, to an extent, the data simply speaks for itself.

“These numbers suggest a doubling of police-involved deaths in the last three years in B.C.,” Paterson told the Straight. “The number of people shot and killed by the RCMP have risen to the highest level in over 10 years. While these numbers don’t allow us to draw a conclusion as to why this is happening, they raise an alarm and require us to ask hard questions.”

The B.C. RCMP and the B.C. Ministry of Justice refused to grant interviews.

Steve Schnitzer is the police-academy director for the Justice Institute of B.C. He called attention to courses that focus on crisis intervention and deescalation tactics and how best to respond to emergencies involving a mental-health component. Those lessons were made mandatory in 2012 following the 2007 death of Robert Dziekański at Vancouver International Airport and the subsequent Braidwood Commission of Inquiry.

“That is a policing standard now,” Schnitzer emphasized. “It [training] changed significantly after the Braidwood commission report came out.”

Statistics compiled by the coroner’s service suggest that there is still room for improvement. According to the organization’s annual report for 2010, just 40 percent of coroner’s recommendations related to police-involved deaths were adopted by the agencies involved in those incidents (2010 being the most recent year for which such statistics were included).

Doug King, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, said there is one factor that can make all the difference in how a police encounter plays out: time.

“There is a huge correlation—based on our work and what we see—with police-involved shootings and first responders,” he said.

King explained that when police officers fire their guns, the weapon is almost always discharged by an officer who was first on the scene and during the first few minutes of a confrontation.

“To me, that indicates there needs to be better training and a greater emphasis on what someone can do to contain an individual until help can arrive,” King said.

The death of Naverone Woods remains under investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of B.C., a public body created in 2012 to examine police incidents involving death or serious harm. Once that review is complete, the case will likely proceed to the coroner’s service.

King said that investigation is one of three he’ll be watching in 2016.

The second, he continued, is that of Phuong Na (Tony) Du, who was killed by Vancouver police at the corner of Knight Street and East 41st Avenue in November 2014. The third is Hudson Brooks, a 20-year-old male who was shot by Surrey RCMP in July 2015.

“These three shootings are all really problematic, from what we’ve heard, and really beg explanations,” King said.

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This article originally appeared in print and online at Straight.com on December 23, 2015.

Undocumented immigrants raise alarm as border cops appear to up enforcement towards year’s end

No One is Illegal organizer Harsha Walia is calling attention to a noticeable increase in calls for assistance the organization has received from undocumented immigrants. Harsha Walia photo.
No One is Illegal organizer Harsha Walia is calling attention to a noticeable increase in calls for assistance the organization has received from undocumented immigrants. Harsha Walia photo.

A sizable community of Metro Vancouver residents is on alert this holiday season, fearing raids by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

In a telephone interview, Harsha Walia, an organizer with No One Is Illegal (NOII), reported that the organization has seen a sharp spike in calls from undocumented immigrants asking for assistance.

“We usually get three to five calls a week, and the last month we got probably close to double,” she said. “We are getting more calls from people who are in detention, more calls from people who had just been visited at their homes or workplaces with deportation orders.”

Walia added that NOII observed a similar increase in calls last year and in 2013 at this time. She said that has her wondering if CBSA intensifies enforcement activities toward the end of each year in an effort to meet quotas for deportation orders.

“We aren’t trying to be alarmist, but we want people to know that this is going on,” she said.

CBSA refused requests for an interview. The CBSA annual report for 2013-14 only quantifies immigration-enforcement actions as a percentage. It states that of foreign nationals identified as inadmissible, 15 percent were removed from the country (exceeding the 12-percent “target”). CBSA also failed to supply more meaningful numbers despite the Straight repeatedly requesting that information since November 26.

According to Byron Cruz, an organizer with the group Sanctuary Health, there are between 3,000 and 5,000 undocumented immigrants from Latin America living in Metro Vancouver.

Cruz said he has observed the same increase in CBSA enforcement noticed by NOII.

“I have been putting things on Facebook, telling people in Spanish: ‘Be careful if you go to the hospital; this can happen to you,’ ” he continued. “So we are making people aware of this.”

On December 9, the Straight reported that during the past two years, Fraser Health’s 12 Lower Mainland hospitals collectively referred about 500 patients to CBSA.

Cruz said that has undocumented immigrants struggling to access health-care services because of fears that a trip to the hospital can end with them being deported. He noted there is a high degree of public support for Syrian refugees and suggested that undocumented immigrants from Latin America aren’t so different.

“Most of them come from situations or from states in Mexico where the war on drugs has hit those provinces,” he explained. “The drug cartels in Mexico are worse than ISIS.”

Cruz recounted a recent trip to Guatemala where he heard stories similar to those of life under ISIS, which is also known as ISIL, Islamic State, and Daesh.

“Guys are beheading people, playing soccer with their heads,” he said. “People who are undocumented are afraid to go back to Mexico or to go back to Guatemala. It is a life-or-death situation there as well.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to bring 10,000 Syrian refugees to Canada before the end of the year, plus another 15,000 by the end of February 2016. In 2014, Canada accepted 665 refugees from Haiti, 655 from Colombia, 625 from Mexico, 190 from El Salvador, 165 from Honduras, and 105 from Guatemala.

Refugees admitted from Syria in 2014 numbered 1,290. That was up from 145 the previous year and 85 in 2012.

Daniel Tseghay is an advocate for refugees from the East African nation of Eritrea. He argued that undocumented immigrants are a symptom of larger problems with Canada’s system for processing refugees. Tseghay explained that many Latin Americans who enter B.C. under the temporary-foreign-workers program fear returning to their home country but do not have a legal route to remain in Canada.

“Their conditions are, to me, fundamentally the same as those of refugees,” Tseghay said. “Refugees and undocumented immigrants are not just fleeing the same things, but they are forced to flee sometimes in the same ways and forced to remain under the radar because of Canada’s border system.”

Vision Vancouver city councillor Geoff Meggs recently gave the Straight an update on the implementation of so-called sanctuary city policies designed to ensure that undocumented immigrants can access municipal services. He said staff have produced a draft document he hopes will go before council in the first half of 2016.

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This article originally appeared in print and online at Straight.com on December 16, 2015.

FOI response suggests B.C. Premier Christy Clark has basically stopped sending emails

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B.C. premier Christy Clark has essentially stopped using email, a response to a freedom-of-information (FOI) request suggests. Either that or she has been sending emails and then deleting them.

If the latter is true, it would contradict an order Clark gave in response to a scathing report on government record-keeping that the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of B.C. (OIPC) released on October 22.

“I’ve told everyone at the political level, ministers, political staff, even if it’s clearly a transitory document that you are required by law to delete—I want you to keep it,” Clarksaid on October 23.

Yet an FOI request for all emails Clark sent from October 19 to 22 and from October 26 to 29 turned up just one document.

“Can you send me a copy of that note you typed us for me recently and stuck in my book?” the sender wrote to communications coordinator Chelsea Dolan. (The sender’s name is redacted but it can be assumed it was Clark, given the parameters of the FOI request.)

The Straight previously reported that a request for Clark’s emails from a two-week period in December 2014 produced no records.

The premier’s office did not grant an interview.

The request for Clark’s October correspondence was filed by the NDP. David Eby, New Democrat MLA for Vancouver–Point Grey, told the Straight the lack of records the request produced is noteworthy because it shows that Clark’s email habits did not change despite her instructing staff to retain their communications.

“It is hard for me to imagine how you could be the premier and have one email over two weeks,” Eby said. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me and strongly suggests she is either deleting her own emails or she is not using email to avoid creating records that could be FOI’d.”

The OIPC’s October 22 report details how employees in the premier’s office plus staff at two ministries had “triple deleted” emails, taking extra steps to expunge records from computers. In addition, the OIPC has accused one employee with the Ministry of Transportation of giving false testimony about the practice while he was under oath. That case has been forwarded to the RCMP.

Clark has repeatedly claimed that email is not her preferred means of communication and said she conducts government business face to face.

The premier tapped former B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukidelis to instruct the government on how it should implement recommendations outlined in the OIPC’s October 22 report. As the Straight went to press, Loukidelis was scheduled to present his findings on December 16. (Update: Loukidelis’s report can be found here.)

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This article originally appeared in print and online at Straight.com on December 16, 2015.

Varied takes on marijuana turn Metro Vancouver into a patchwork of unpredictable enforcement

Sarah Bowman was handcuffed by Burnaby RCMP after smoking a joint.
Sarah Bowman was handcuffed by Burnaby RCMP after smoking a joint.

Late one evening last February, Sarah Bowman was on her way home when she was approached by two RCMP officers at the Edmonds SkyTrain Station in Burnaby.

She had just smoked a joint, Bowman recounted in a telephone interview, but she didn’t think she was in real trouble. Bowman explained that she had a doctor’s prescription for the drug and had obtained it with that document at a medicinal-marijuana dispensary in Vancouver.

“I saw police officers making the rounds, so I threw my joint away,” she said. “They walked straight up to me, a gentleman showed me his badge, grabbed my hands, and handcuffed me without me even responding.”

Bowman sat on the ground as officers searched her bags. They didn’t find any marijuana and eventually located both Bowman’s prescription for cannabis and her dispensary membership card. But the RCMP officers dismissed those documents as irrelevant.

They argued that under existing laws, medicinal marijuana must be obtained via mail order from a certified Health Canada supplier. That is accurate (with exceptions) and remains true today.

On November 13, Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a mandate letter that stated the Ministry of Justice should “create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of marijuana”. But Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould (MP for Vancouver Granville) has yet to act on that directive.

Both the Justice Ministry and the RCMP refused to grant interviews. Cpl. Janelle Shoihet, a spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP, did however confirm officers are still enforcing cannabis laws including those that prohibit possession.

Dana Larsen is vice president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. He told the Straight that although the country remains in a period of transition on marijuana, municipal jurisdictions are policing cannabis as they see fit. Larsen suggested that situation has turned an urban region like Metro Vancouver into an unpredictable patchwork where some jurisdictions zealously enforce drug laws while others turn a blind eye to petty crimes like possession.

“In B.C., it totally depends on the mayor and the mayor and city council,” he said.

Bowman was travelling from Vancouver to New Westminster but stopped in Burnaby to visit her boyfriend. The Vancouver Police Department has long maintained it does not consider marijuana possession an enforcement priority. Meanwhile, in 2014, the New Westminster Police Department recorded a seven-year low for drug offences (going as far back as data is publicly available). But Burnaby is policed by the RCMP.

“They left me shaking uncontrollably and terrified,” said Bowman, who was eventually released without charges. “I used to think that police officers were there to help. Now, I’m paranoid. I’m afraid of police.”

Murray Rankin, opposition critic for justice and NDP MP for Victoria, told the Straightthat stories such as Bowman’s should serve as a warning. He said cities like Vancouver and New Westminster may not consider it a priority to go after someone with a joint but anecdotal evidence suggests the situation is different in jurisdictions covered by the RCMP.

“It’s quite a varied landscape out there,” he said. “We want a coherent position across the country.”

Rankin added that the situation on Vancouver Island is similar to that of Metro Vancouver. The City of Victoria (which has its own municipal police force) has tacitly accepted marijuana storefronts and is drafting regulations comparable to those Vancouver adopted last June. Meanwhile, Rankin continued, in Nanaimo (where the RCMP patrols the streets), marijuana is still getting people into trouble with law enforcement.

Barely an hour after Rankin’s call with the Straight, the RCMP issued a news releasestating they had executed search warrants at three marijuana dispensaries in Nanaimo.

Rankin acknowledged that legalizing marijuana—that is, creating a framework for sales similar to rules that cover tobacco—will be complicated and take time. But he argued it would not be hard for the federal government to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cannabis. Rankin noted the Liberals have discussed this as a likely first step, and he wondered when that will happen.

As few as seven percent of B.C. marijuana violations result in charges, according to a 2011 analysis published by the University of the Fraser Valley. But according to B.C. Justice Ministry numbers, from 2003 to 2012, police across the province recorded 173,157 offences related to cannabis.

Larsen emphasized that even without a charge, an apprehension such as the encounter with RCMP Bowman experienced is usually entered into a police database, where it can remain for years and create problems for someone when the apply for a job or travel to the United States.

Like Rankin, Larsen said he accepts that full legalization will likely be a long process. “But there is no reason to continue arresting people for possession,” he said. “Especially when those charges are likely going to be dropped in a few months anyways. What’s the point?”

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This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on December 2, 2015.

B.C. Corrections makes it official policy to house transgender inmates based on gender identity

On September 30, Bianca Sawyer was transferred from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, a prison for men, to Alouette Correctional Centre, a provincial prison for women located in Maple Ridge. That change made her the first pre-op transgender inmate in B.C. to be housed in a facility based on her gender identity.
On September 30, Bianca Sawyer was transferred from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, a prison for men, to Alouette Correctional Centre, a provincial prison for women located in Maple Ridge. That change made her the first pre-op transgender inmate in B.C. to be housed in a facility based on her gender identity.

British Columbia has become the second province in Canada to make it official policy to hold transgender prisoners in facilities based on gender identity as opposed to physical attributes.

As the Straight reported on November 4, B.C. Corrections permitted the first transfer of such an inmate in September.

That individual is named Bianca Sawyer, a transgender woman who was born with the physical characteristics of a man and who was previously known as Jaris Lovado. Sawyer was originally held at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, a prison for men, and was transferred to Alouette Correctional Centre, a provincial prison for women located in Maple Ridge.

Interviewed for that story, B.C. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton described the move as part of formal changes in rules and procedures.

“The written policy is still under development, but you can see the application of the policy is already underway,” she told the Straight on October 28. “We have had our first person placed based on gender-identity, and it seems to have worked out very well.”

As of November 15, that policy is officially down on paper.

The changes concern section 9.17 of the B.C. Ministry of Justice Adult Custody Policy, according to a copy of the revised document obtained by the Straight.

It previously stated that an inmate is not permitted such a transfer until they have progressed in treatment to step four of six outlined in that document. Step four is described as “surgical removal of sex organs”.

The revised section 9.17 states that an inmate who identifies as transgender will be involved in the decision process that dictates whether they are held in a facility designed for males or one for females.

“Transgender inmates are placed in a correctional centre according to their self-identified gender or housing preference, unless there are overriding health and/or safety concerns which cannot be resolved,” it reads. “Those concerns are clearly articulated to the inmate. Consultation occurs with the medical director and/or the director, mental health services.”

The document adds that a transfer is not required.

“The inmate is involved in the decision-making process,” it continues. “It is recognized that not all transgender inmates want to be housed according to their self-identified gender.”

B.C. Corrections’ revised policies cover a number of other areas concerning the care and security of transgender inmates.

For example, they state transgender inmates should be given “preferred institutional clothing and underclothing”, that they should be provided with personal items that may be required “to express their gender identity”, and that accommodations should be made to allow for transgender inmates to use the washroom and shower in private.

In a letter to the Straight, Sawyer described what the policy change meant for her.

“When I was called for transfer I was ecstatic to say the least,” she wrote. “A calming euphoria of appreciation and thanks washed over me.”

The changes at B.C. Corrections follow the Ontario government implementing similar reforms in January 2015.

Jen Metcalfe is a lawyer with West Coast Prison Justice Society who helped push for Sawyer’s transfer. She described the revised procedures made public today as an example the rest of the country should follow.

“The policy may be the best example of any jurisdiction in Canada and the world for the accommodation of transgender prisoners,” Metcalfe wrote in an email to the Straight. “B.C. transgender prisoners are now protected by policy from being put at risk of sexual harassment and assault, and are now afforded the dignity and equality that all people deserve.”

In a separate email, Adrienne Smith, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, similarly applauded the change in regulations. However, they emphasized discrimination against transgender people remains “endemic”, not just inside prisons but throughout society overall.

“The new corrections policy addresses a historical wrong of prisons misgendering trans inmates by housing them in way that exposes them to harm,” Smith wrote. “B.C. is catching up to other provinces with this prison policy. But that the real solution will be to address the root social and economic reasons why so many trans people end up being sent to jail in the first place.”

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This article was originally published online at Straight.com on November 23, 2015.

B.C. Corrections transfers first transgender inmate from men’s to women’s facility

As an inmate who identifies as transgender, Bianca Sawyer has plenty of criticism for how B.C. Corrections treated her in the past. But she says reforms that allowed her to be transferred to a facility of her gender identity have exceeded her expectations.
As an inmate who identifies as transgender, Bianca Sawyer has plenty of criticism for how B.C. Corrections treated her in the past. But she says reforms that allowed her to be transferred to a facility of her gender identity have exceeded her expectations.

Bianca Sawyer was overjoyed when she entered the Alouette Correctional Centre, a provincial prison for women located in Maple Ridge.

“For three days my face hurt from smiling,” she wrote in a letter to the Straight.

Born Jaris Lovado, Sawyer is the first transgender individual that B.C. Corrections has allowed to be transferred to a facility of the gender she identifies as, rather than one selected on the basis of physical attributes.

“I am the first pre-op male-to-female transgender to be transferred from a male B.C. provincial jail to a female once,” she writes. “B.C. Corrections is calling it ground breaking.”

According to section 9.17 of the B.C. Ministry of Justice Adult Custody Policy, an inmate is not permitted such a transfer until they have progressed in treatment to step four of six outlined in that document. Step four is described as “surgical removal of sex organs”.

Sawyer’s transfer marks a departure from that policy.

In a telephone interview, B.C. Justice Minister Suzanne Anton described the move as part of formal changes in rules and procedures.

“The written policy is still under development, but you can see the application of the policy is already underway,” she said. “We have had our first person placed based on gender-identity, and it seems to have worked out very well.”

Anton stressed she could not speak about any specific individual on account of privacy legislation, but did confirm Alouette Correctional Centre as the facility that received the transfer.

She said staff are now working out the details and revising exactly how the policy will appear on paper.

In addition to allowing inmates to reside in facilities that match their gender identities, Anton said B.C. Corrections will also improve transgender individuals’ access to medical treatment, and provide enhanced training to staff for how they should accommodate transgender inmates.

“Corrections staff will be trained to deal with individual situations as they come along,” she said.

The changes at B.C. Corrections follow the Ontario government implementing similar reforms in January 2015. Anton said a review of those developments was conducted as part of the process her ministry has undertaken.

According to Sawyer’s letter, the transfer occurred on September 30.

“When I was called for transfer I was ecstatic to say the least,” she wrote. “A calming euphoria of appreciation and thanks washed over me.”

To understand why Sawyer was so happy upon arriving at Alouette Correctional Centre, one has to understand from where she came.

She was transferred from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, a prison for men.

“Imagine being female in a male population,” she wrote. “Imagine this…name calling, sexual harassment and bullying would be a constant threat? What about the very real possibility of sexual abuse? No doubt that a population of sexually deprived men wanted to do things to me, a truly scary situation.”

She goes on to recount having to urinate in front of male inmates, being strip-searched by male guards, and regularly receiving verbal abuse that focused on her gender from both inmates and staff.

“I stayed awake all night crying,” Sawyer writes about one day when she was repeatedly frisked by a male guard.

Sawyer lobbied for the transfer with the assistance of West Coast Prison Justice Society (WCPJ), a group based in Burnaby that provides legal aid to prisoners across Canada.

In a telephone interview, WCPJ lawyer Jen Metcalfe said the risks faced by this group of prisoners has always been extreme.

“The problem with holding transgender women in men’s prisons is that they are at a huge risk for violence, sexual assault, and harassment,” she explained. “Most of our transgender clients say that they are verbally harassed by other prisoners, sometimes guards….Our federal transgender clients, I have had a few reports that they’ve been raped or physically assaulted.”

Metcalfe told the Straight it’s impossible to say how many people reside in B.C. Corrections facilities who might be eligible for facility transfers like the one Sawyer was granted. She acknowledged it is very likely a small number. But Metcalfe stressed the significance of each case given the circumstances of extreme vulnerability transgender prisoners face when housed among inmates of a gender different from their own.

“It’s just cruel,” she said. “I think it’s time for policy reform.”

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This article was originally published online at Straight.com on November 4, 2015.

Methadone patient alleges discrimination and targets the B.C. government with a class-action lawsuit

Laura Shaver, a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (Vandu), has opened the door for a class-action lawsuit against the B.C. government for allegedly discriminating against methadone patients. Travis Lupick photo.
Laura Shaver, a member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (Vandu), has opened the door for a class-action lawsuit against the B.C. government for allegedly discriminating against methadone patients. Travis Lupick photo.

An advocate for recovering heroin addicts has taken the first step in a potential class-action lawsuit against the Government of British Columbia.

“I want to help everybody in the Downtown Eastside who is on methadone and who has to pay this,” Laura Shaver told the Straight.

According to a notice of civil claim filed today (November 4) in the B.C. Supreme Court, Shaver entered into an agreement with the province that results in a monthly deduction from her social-assistance payments (commonly referred to as welfare).

The claim alleges Shaver entered that agreement while under duress, and that the nature of that agreement amounts to discrimination on the basis of a disability.

None of the allegations included in the lawsuit’s notice of claim have been proven in court. The province has yet to file a statement of defence.

The lawsuit pertains to a group of people who are both enrolled in the province’s methadone maintenance program (MMP) and who receive social assistance under the B.C. Employment and Assistance Act.

The claim explains that as one of those people, Shaver was asked to enter into a “fee agreement” with the Ministry of Social Development before her physician would prescribe her methadone, a form of an opioid-substitution therapy favoured in B.C. for the treatment of an addiction to heroin.

“Ms. Shaver signed the Fee Agreement unwillingly and under duress to gain access to necessary medical treatment,” the notice of claim reads.

That fee agreement preauthorizes the provincial government to deduct an amount from Shaver’s monthly social-assistance payments and provide that money to the private clinic where she is prescribed methadone.

“The Fee Agreement purports to allow the Province to deduct $18.34 from Ms. Shaver’s social-assistance payment per month despite the Province’s implicit understanding and awareness that Ms. Shaver has no resources to cover that cost and that going without methadone was not a practicable option for Ms. Shaver,” it continues.

The notice of claim states that because the fee agreement in question is only applied against methadone patients, the monthly deduction from Shaver’s social-assistance payments amount to a violation of Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It states that every citizen is equal before the law and ensured equal treatment regardless of any mental or physical disability.

The Straight has requested an interview with the Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation. This article will be updated if a representative is made available.

Shaver, who is also a member of the B.C. Association of People on Methadone and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (Vandu), is represented in her legal challenge by Jason Gratl, a Vancouver-based lawyer.

“From a legal point of view, the signature on patients’ consent forms—the signature on the forms consenting to the payment—was obtained by means of duress,” he said.

Gratl conceded that to many people, $18.34 a month won’t sound like a lot of money. But to those on welfare, it can account for a noticeable fraction of their budgets.

“The ministry and the prescribing doctors are forcing people to choose between necessary medical treatment and food,” he argued.

In B.C., the maximum amount of monthly income assistance for a single employable person is $610, which includes a $375 shelter allowance .

Gratl said that he wants the legal challenge to result in the province refunding money to any patient enrolled in the methadone maintenance program who saw money deducted from their monthly social-assistance payments.

“There is no legal authority allowing for such deductions to occur,” he said. “Those services are medically necessary.”

The B.C. Supreme Court has yet to certify the claim as a class-action lawsuit. Gratl told the Straight he is confident it will receive that classification and advance in the near future.

According to a May 2014 B.C. government report, in 2012-13 there were 14,833 patients enrolled in the province’s methadone-maintenance treatment program.

That document states that to keep one patient in opiate substitution therapy, it costs B.C. approximately $3,268 per year.

If the government were to stop its monthly deductions from cheques like Shaver’s, that number would grow to approximately $3,488 per year.

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This article was originally published online at Straight.com on November 4, 2015.

NDP cites evidence of emails deleted from top government accounts, including premier’s

A freedom-of-information request filed by the NDP found more than 800 "message tracking logs" for emails related to an account operated by Tobie Myers, chief of staff to B.C. Minister Rich Coleman, yet a separate request for the contents of some of those emails resulted in the government producing just three messages.
A freedom-of-information request filed by the NDP found more than 800 “message tracking logs” for emails related to an account operated by Tobie Myers, chief of staff to B.C. Minister Rich Coleman, yet a separate request for the contents of some of those emails resulted in the government producing just three messages.

The B.C. New Democrats say they are collecting a growing body of evidence that proves a Liberal government practice of deleting emails was “systemic” and explicitly for the purpose of preventing the release of information to the public.

In a telephone interview, David Eby, MLA for Vancouver–Point Grey, said the NDP will forward the documents it has collected to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for B.C. (OIPC) and that body can then decide if a formal investigation is warranted.

The Opposition member’s claims come on the heels of an October 22 OIPC report that details how employees in the premier’s office, plus staff at two ministries, had “triple deleted” emails, taking extra steps to expunge records from computers. The results of that investigation implicate the premier’s deputy chief of staff, Michele Cadario. In addition, the OIPC has accused one government employee, George Gretes, of giving false testimony about the practice while he was under oath. That case has been forwarded to the RCMP.

“The practice we observed was the routine emptying of the Recover Deleted Items folder to ensure that emails were permanently deleted from an employee’s system,” the OIPC report reads. “This is not the intention of the Recover Deleted Items folder and for employees managing their mail account it serves no legitimate purpose.”

The file the NDP is building already includes information on a number of additional email addresses that were not the subject of that investigation, Eby said, one of those being an account that belongs to the premier herself.

Eby explained the NDP filed a freedom-of-information request that asked for all correspondence to and from Premier Christy Clark’s public and private email addresses for a two-week period in December 2014 (coinciding with an announcement about the Site C dam). That request resulted in the government stating it could find no records meeting the criteria of the request.

A subsequent freedom-of-information request asked for the “message tracking logs” for the same account and same period, Eby continued. The government’s response to that request, however, stated that there were more than 150 emails sent from the premier’s public account during that time frame.

Eby said the NDP has similar evidence of missing emails for accounts controlled by Tobie Myers, chief of staff to Rich Coleman—who oversees several ministry portfolios, including liquefied natural gas—as well as the email account of John Dyble, deputy minister to the premier. (B.C. NDP leader John Horgan provided more information related to the case of Myers in an October 26 blog post. An October 27 report by the Vancouver Sun adds details to accusations regarding Dyble.)

Eby maintained that those discrepancies—a number of which were reviewed by the Straight—suggest that hundreds of emails pertinent to government business were deleted from the premier’s account as well as the accounts of top government officials.

Meanwhile, freelance journalist Bob Mackin has stated publicly he may have proof that emails were deleted from accounts belonging to Sam Oliphant and Maclean Kay, both of whom work in the premier’s office as media relations officers.

The premier’s office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. Clark has said her government is cooperating with the OIPC and has emphasized that she has ordered all government employees to refrain from deleting emails.

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This article was originally published in print and online at Straight.com on October 28, 2015.