Province offers legal help to families of those killed by police
Move addresses ‘imbalance of power’ that saw grieving relatives forced to pay out of pocket to hire a lawyer at inquests
In a reversal of its previous stance, the provincial government will now fund lawyers at coroner’s inquests for families of people killed by police.
Friday’s announcement follows a Star story last week on the imbalance at inquests created by the fact that families are often left to pay out of pocket for lawyers, while many other parties, including the individual police officers, have publicly funded legal representation.
“It was an intentional imbalance of power, absolutely,” said Karyn Greenwood-Graham, who founded the group Affected Families of Police Homicide after her son was killed by Waterloo police in 2007.
“I’m elated, finally, that the government is starting to listen to families, because it’s about time.”
The funding is a direct response to one of the 129 recommendations from Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch in his review of Ontario’s police oversight bodies, made public in April.
The announcement also comes as the family of Michael MacIsaac — who was shot dead by Durham police Const. Brian Taylor in 2013 — is preparing for the inquest into his death, set to begin Monday in Toronto.
His family has had to raise funds for a lawyer, because until now the only provincial program that provided legal representation for families at inquests included a requirement that the deceased person had been a victim of crime.
As critics have pointed out, the vast majority of police-related deaths in Ontario, including in the MacIsaac case, do not lead to criminal charges.
On the other hand, lawyers for many other parties at inquests, including police services boards and individual officers, are publicly funded, either directly by tax dollars or indirectly through police union dues.
“Obviously, from a financial perspective, I certainly feel relieved, and I’m happy that going forward this is going to change for any other family, that they won’t have this stress,” Michael’s sister Joanne MacIsaac told the Star on Friday.
“As happy as I am about this, I’m hoping that it’s a fund that doesn’t have to get utilized very often, because there’s still the issue of preventing these deaths from happening in the future.”
Some families were able to secure funding for lawyers at police shooting inquests in the past through Legal Aid Ontario if they met certain criteria. The MacIsaac family said they were denied funding through legal aid. Joanne also said she had an unhelpful meeting with Attorney General Yasir Naqvi.
In a last-ditch effort to secure funds, she met with Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Marie-France Lalonde last week.
“I think it’s a very important recommendation that we have been looking at and exploring,” Lalonde told the Star. “This is in response to (Tulloch’s) recommendation and also advocacy by a family member in our community. I want to thank her for her advocacy in this.”
The government will also reimburse families who had to pay for lawyers at inquests going back to April 1, 2015. Families will be reimbursed regardless of income, said Lalonde, as long as they are granted standing at the coroner’s inquest. (Families are almost always given standing when they request it at police-related death inquests.)
“Some family members pointed out that the police have their own lawyers, yet they are generally expected to pay out of their own pocket if they want one,” Tulloch wrote in his report released in April.
“Many of these family members are simply unable to do so. That is unfortunate since families have a special interest in obtaining a complete understanding of the circumstances of the death.”
The funding program, expected to cost $675,000, will provide up to $40,000 to cover legal expenses and another $5,000 for other expenses for inquests lasting no more than 20 days. For proceedings that go more than 20 days, families can apply for more funding, up to an additional $45,000.
Lalonde said the government will be undertaking consultations, which could see the reimbursement period go further back than April 2015. She also said the government will look at expanding the program for funding for families at other inquests where the state is involved, such as when a child dies in care.
The guidelines for the program and application process will be posted on the ministry’s website July 20.
“I would hope that other jurisdictions, if they don’t have this type of structure in place, would consider funding families in the future because as we’ve seen, often they are the only ones interested in critical views of the circumstances surrounding a death, especially a police death, and finding ways to change conduct,” said lawyer Roy Wellington, who will represent the MacIsaac family at the inquest.
The ministry’s response is in stark contrast to its position last year when the issue of funding for lawyers at police-related death inquests was put on its radar by former Metro Toronto councillor Bev Salmon.
She had written to politicians, including Premier Kathleen Wynne, urging the government to fund lawyers for families following the inquest into the Toronto police shooting death of Ian Pryce, whose mother, Heather Thompson, is a friend of Salmon’s. In that case, lawyer Peter Rosenthal represented Thompson pro bono.
“In my case, I was fortunate somebody stepped forward. But what about all the other people? How do they manage?” Thompson told the Star at the time.
A response from the ministry to Salmon’s pleas made clear the funding program was only for families of deceased victims of crime.
“I’m happy that going forward this is going to change for any other family, that they won’t have this stress.” JOANNE MACISAAC SISTER OF MICHAEL MACISAAC (PICTURED) WHO WAS SHOT DEAD BY DURHAM POLICE IN 2013. AN INQUEST INTO HIS DEATH BEGINS MONDAY.