can you imagine how desperate the RCMP liars and coverup artists must be? they have pulled out all the stops, now it is Geoff Plant, a former B.C. Attorney general (with a known predisposition against public inquiries under any circumstances) who is coming out of the woodwork with what is apparently sober and sage brotherly advice for Thomas Braidwood
Plant must have been second string, they must have tried Wally Oppal first, I guess he has more gumption than I thought and refused
"An inquiry report has no legal consequences, but it's an incredibly powerful political document. The risk of public inquiries is that they will destroy people's reputations without adequate protection."
Former Attorney General of B.C. Geoff Plant.
this is not over yet, the new AG and Government House Leader is Mike de Jong, MLA for Abbotsford-Mount Lehman, aka Minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, aka Minister of Labour and Citizen Services, aka Minister of Forests ... a lawyer ... gets around
so, I wonder what he will do about it all?
Will he play it straight and cuff the baaaaad Mounties?
or
Will he sit on Thomas Braidwood's report hoping that it will all go away?
Will he cave in to pressure from the lying RCMP and their cowardly lackeys?
Will Stephen Harper & Peter Van Loan call him up and tell him to stfu?
We will just have to wait and see eh?
Michael de Jong, election website, British Columbia Ministry of Attorney General, Mike de Jong, MLA website, Contact Mike.
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Appendices:
1. Former AG says Taser inquiries shouldn't find misconduct, CP, June 18 2009.
2. 'Misconduct' findings should be rarely used, former AG says, as Taser inquiry ends, CP, June 18 2009.
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Former AG says Taser inquiries shouldn't find misconduct, CP, June 18 2009.
VANCOUVER – Public inquiries like the one examining Robert Dziekanski's death at Vancouver's airport should rarely – if ever – make findings of misconduct, says a former B.C. attorney general.
The inquiry begins hearing final submissions on Friday and several lawyers will be asking the commissioner to assign blame against the officers who repeatedly stunned Dziekanski with a Taser on Oct 14, 2007.
The officers launched a court challenge to prevent Commissioner Thomas Braidwood from having the option of finding misconduct, but their case was rejected in B.C. Supreme Court earlier this week.
Vancouver lawyer Geoff Plant, who was attorney general in the province from 2001 to 2005, cautions that inquiries can ruin reputations and destroy careers without offering the same legal protections as formal trials.
"An inquiry report has no legal consequences, but it's an incredibly powerful political document," Plant said in an interview Thursday.
"The risk of public inquiries is that they will destroy people's reputations without adequate protection."
Witnesses can be compelled to testify at public inquiries – the RCMP officers involved in Dziekanski's death were subpoenaed – whereas people accused in criminal trials can refuse to give evidence against themselves.
The standards of evidence are also lower in a public inquiry than at a trial, a fact that Braidwood has noted several times during the lengthy hearings in Vancouver.
And while Braidwood has repeatedly noted throughout the proceedings that inquiries can't assign criminal or civil blame, whatever he concludes in his final report will have a profound effect on public opinion, said Plant.
"Ask anybody who's ever been the subject of a finding of misconduct in a highly publicized inquiry whether it was an important thing and I think you'll find they will say it was," he said.
"The people who may be on the receiving end of judge Braidwood's findings here may have their careers wrecked in circumstances where they have not had the same kind of opportunity to defend themselves as they would have had if it was any kind of legal proceeding."
Braidwood has warned the officers he will consider allegations made during the inquiry, namely that they acted improperly when they confronted Dziekanski and then lied to justify what happened. That doesn't necessarily mean he will reach those conclusions, but he is required to give notice if he wants the option left open.
The officers' unsuccessful court challenge focused on complex constitutional arguments about provincial jurisdiction over federal police officers, but their lawyers also argued that a public inquiry shouldn't be used in place of a criminal trial.
Crown prosecutors decided last year not to charge the officers.
"It's something that may affect someone's reputation," Ravi Hira, the lawyer for the officer who fired the Taser, said in an interview.
"What a commission is, it doesn't afford the same rights (as a trial)."
But without the option of formal charges, critics of the officers and the RCMP are looking to the inquiry to decide who is to blame for Dziekanski's death.
Findings of misconduct would mean "there is finally an acknowledgment of wrongdoing on somebody's part," Walter Kosteckyj, lawyer for Dziekanski's mother, said in a recent interview.
"Nobody accepts responsibility. I think there's grounds to find misconduct here."
Even without specific findings of misconduct, the inquiry appears to have already had an effect on the reputations of officers and the RCMP.
A survey for The Canadian Press conducted in March found that about a third of respondents said the affair has lowered their opinion of the national police force and coverage of the hearings has been replete with calls for prosecutors to reconsider charging the officers.
Plant, who didn't call a single public inquiry when he was attorney general and even scrapped one that was already in motion when he took office, said public inquiries themselves should be called only when absolutely necessary.
He said it's clear the Braidwood inquiry has important and relevant issues to consider, but he said in general they should be used sparingly, particularly considering the damage they can do to the people involved.
"I think we'll have to wait until this commission's report before we're going to be able to say whether the public interest was truly served," he said.
"Just having the inquiry is going to put people's reputations at the heart of the public spotlight. That's why you should commence them rarely."
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'Misconduct' findings should be rarely used, former AG says, as Taser inquiry ends, CP, June 18 2009.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — A former British Columbia attorney general says public inquiries like the one probing Robert Dziekanski's death should rarely, if ever, make findings of misconduct.
The inquiry begins hearing final submissions on Friday, and several lawyers will be asking the commissioner to assign blame against the officers who repeatedly stunned Dziekanski with a Taser.
The officers challenged Commissioner Thomas Braidwood's authority to make such findings, but their case was rejected by a B.C. Supreme Court judge earlier this week.
Vancouver lawyer Geoff Plant, who was B.C. attorney general from 2001 to 2005, says inquiries don't offer witnesses the same legal rights and protections as criminal or civil trials.
He says because witnesses can be compelled to testify in hearings where the standards of evidence are lower than in formal trials, commissioners should avoid alleging misconduct unless it's absolutely necessary.
Plant says even though findings of misconduct carry no legal weight, they can destroy reputations and ruin careers.
Lawyers for Dziekanski's mother and the Polish government have levelled several allegations against the officers and will be asking the commissioner to conclude the officers acted improperly the night they confronted Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport.
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