A long-anticipated hearing into the police-involved death of Myles Gray in 2015 is being adjourned for four weeks, after it was derailed by an obscene remark and the subsequent resignation of counsel for the proceeding in Vancouver.
Counsel for the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of British Columbia, Chris Considine, says lawyers representing police, who include a woman who may have been the target of the vulgarity, are opposing the return of public hearing counsel Brad Hickford, despite a plea from the adjudicator to "get over it."
Considine said a replacement for Hickford is being appointed, but it will take time for them to get up to speed on the case involving seven Vancouver officers who deny misconduct in Gray's beating death, which a coroner concluded was a homicide.
"Although Mr. Hickford will not resume his duties as public hearing counsel, he will and has very graciously agreed to fully assist the new public hearing council with the transition," Corsidine said Tuesday.
He also that "all parties have agreed to co-operate to make potential admissions to facilitate the hearing as much as possible."
Richard Neary, the lawyer for Hickford, said his client is grateful for support from adjudicator Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey, but he is standing by his decision to quit because he doesn't want to be a "distraction" and because of applications "threatened" by other lawyers at the public hearing.
Neary said Hickford didn't make the decision lightly, but lawyers for the police officers had "threatened" to make applications that could have impeded the process if he continued as public hearing counsel.
Hickford is under investigation by the Law Society of B.C. over a remark caught on a hot microphone last week, describing someone as "stupid" and using an extreme obscenity that is sometimes used to describe women.
Arnold-Bailey said she questions how the proceeding that was set to last 10 weeks will not "run out of time" given the lawyers' schedules and the need to secure a location.
Ian Donaldson, lawyer for the Gray family, said after Tuesday's hearing that Hickford worked "diligently" for a long time and that they were grateful to him for his hard work.
He said Hickford made a difficult but "honourable" decision to step away from the hearing, and it shouldn't take focus away from the purpose of the hearing by "going down some side road."
"New counsel has a large job to do, that's for sure," he said. "The Gray family would like this matter to proceed. They would like it to be proceeding right now. This is an unfortunate development."
Donaldson said other proceedings into Gray's death, including a coroner's inquest, left unanswered questions.
"The presiding coroner, for the most part, prevented extensive cross-examination. He stopped me from cross-examining further. So there's no doubt that there are some circumstances that have not been explored," he said.
He said the subject officers can't be compelled to testify in the public hearing, but "if you are permitted to use force in the public interest, you ought to be accountable for that force and be obliged to talk about that and what you did and why you did it."
Sgt. Steve Addison, spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department, said the force has several members at the hearing - some being paid overtime - including representatives from its human resources section, its peer support unit, professional standards section, public affairs section, as well as members of the emergency response team.
Addison said the emergency response officers were "assisting the respondent members in navigating the way in and out of the building," which is an insecure venue without security, unlike a courthouse.
"After 11 years, this is the final point in the process where we hope that all of the information will come out and everybody involved will have the answers that they've been seeking," he said.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
