Rights tribunal orders training for city police

A B.C. Human Rights Tribunal says Vancouver police officers discriminated against an Indigenous mother and has ordered the police board to pay compensation and train its officer about the legacies of colonialism.

The ruling says when Deborah Campbell asked questions during her 19-year-old son’s arrest in 2016, she was “roughly and physically separated from him” and warned she could be arrested for obstructing justice.

The police board denied that its officers discriminated, saying the woman was interfering with their ability to secure the scene.

Tribunal member Devyn Cousineau ruled police failed to account for the long history of colonialism and historical trauma on Indigenous Peoples. She ordered the board pay Campbell $21,500.

The police board has also been given a year to train its officers who deal with Indigenous people.