For Immediate Release
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) territories / Vancouver, BC – Today, Pivot & BCCLA filed a request for review to BC’s Police Complaint Commissioner that it utilize its statutory discretion under the Police Act to investigate the systemic aspects of the use of force complaint filed by Pivot & BCCLA back in September 2024. We urge the Police Complaint Commissioner to inquire into and address the roots of this violence that merely extends Canada’s complicity in Israel’s genocidal terror against Indigenous Palestinians and stigmatizes and criminalizes communities in Canada that express support for Palestinian human rights.
It has been nearly two years since Pivot & BCCLA filed service and policy complaints dealing with the VPD’s excessive use of force and ongoing surveillance of Palestinian, Arab, Indigenous, racialized, and allied white people in Palestine solidarity movements. The Police Board, with the OPCC agreeing, initially resolved to address the use of force complaint following resolution of criminal law matters pertaining to 13 arrestees at the railway blockade. These proceedings have now concluded. Yet, the Police Board asserts the use of force complaint has been closed without at all addressing the allegations relating to policing violence and the egregious profiling of people expressing support for Palestinian rights.
February 12th marked Vancouver Police Board’s first public meeting of the year. Yet, Pivot & BCCLA have received no response indicating that the police board intends to address the matter promptly pursuant to BC’s police oversight and accountability laws.
“A serious public-interest complaint involving systemic and discriminatory policing concerns has been effectively shut down without any investigation and without a credible explanation. That should alarm everyone. When oversight bodies such as the Vancouver Police Board fail to examine allegations of systemic discrimination and police use of excessive force, it undermines the rule of law and erodes public trust in both police and civilian accountability systems. The public deserves more than a closed file and unanswered questions — they deserve a process that is transparent, independent, and willing to confront systemic problems. We are calling on the Police Complaint Commissioner to intervene and ensure this complaint is fully and impartially investigated.”
– Meghan McDermott, Policy Director, BCCLA
“Excessive use of force against marginalized communities engaged in land defense, political dissent and liberation movements is right out of colonial playbooks. We have seen this before in so many contexts where Indigenous, Black, racialized and white allies are stopped, detained, arrested and repressed for asserting fundamental human rights. For the Police Board to assert that it refuses to deal with the use of force issues, nor inquire into the circumstances around the VPD’s arbitrary detention of people at a protest blockade reveals the enduring violence of settler colonialism, and this only emboldens police to use violence to quell Charter-protected protest activity as a means to unlawfully suppress dissent.”
-Simone Akyianu, Staff Lawyer, Pivot
Background Documents:
About Pivot:
Pivot Legal Society is a leading Canadian human rights organization that uses the law to address the root causes of poverty and social exclusion in Canada. Pivot’s work includes challenging laws and policies that force people to the margins of society and keep them there. Since 2002 Pivot has won major victories for sex workers’ rights, police accountability, affordable housing, and health and drug policy.
About BC Civil Liberties Association:
BCCLA works to promote, defend, sustain, and extend civil liberties and human rights in British Columbia and Canada. We achieve this mandate through four core programs: litigation in Court; law and policy reform; public legal education; community-based information assistance and advocacy. Relentless in their pursuit of justice, BCCLA has grown from a small group of academics and activists to a non-partisan and non-profit organization of people who continue to fight for civil liberties and human rights.
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