The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs, #JusticeforJared, First Nations Leadership Council, the BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC), in solidarity with family members, including Laura Holland, Debbie Pierre, Tracy Speed, and Lily Speed-Namox, friends, and supporters seeking justice for Dale Culver and Jared Lowndes have written a joint letter urging the Deputy Attorney General direct the Assistant Deputy Attorney General to reconsider prosecuting the RCMP officers who killed Dale Culver and Jared Lowndes.

Further, the signatories call for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor or Ad Hoc Counsel, that Counsel be an Indigenous lawyer or, in the alternative, that an Indigenous lawyer accompany the Special Prosecutor or Ad Hoc Counsel as second chair during the criminal proceedings. Finally, we call on the BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) to address the pervasive and systemic racism which is manifest in these decisions and work to undo its role in escalating the disproportionate over-incarceration and under protection of Indigenous Peoples.

In both Dale’s death and Jared’s death, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) referred their files to the BCPS because it found that there were reasonable grounds to believe the RCMP officers involved committed offences. The Crown’s failure to move forward with criminal proceedings in both these instances, signal that police can kill Indigenous peoples with impunity.

Justice must be done and be seen to be done. Prosecuting police officers who have been investigated by the IIO and recommended for charges are of significant public interest. The failure to prosecute in these instances is not only an afront to the administration of justice, but it fundamentally undermines public trust in the criminal justice system; a colonial system imposed on Indigenous peoples; a system from which they have never benefited.

We call on the DAG to direct the ADAG to reconsider criminal proceedings against the RCMP officers involved in the death of Dale Culver and Jared Lowndes because it is essential to the administration of justice, the public interest, and because it is the right thing to do.