B.C. to overhaul ‘outdated’ Police Act
All-party committee to focus on systemic racism, minister says
B.C. will launch a complete overhaul of policing in the province, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Thursday.
Hours after Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart called on the province to review policing, Farnworth told Postmedia he and Premier John Horgan discussed earlier this week setting up an all-party committee to modernize B.C.’s Police Act, “with a specific focus on systemic racism.”
Stewart made his appeal to the province at a time when people around the world are denouncing police brutality and calling for reform. Stewart’s announcement was applauded by some as a welcome step for a civic leader and criticized by others for deflecting the issue to the province instead of using his own office to take action.
Stewart said he asked Premier Horgan for a “comprehensive review” of policing in B.C., to investigate the “systemic racism and disproportionate violence” faced by Black and Indigenous peoples, to examine the current policing approach to vulnerable people including drug users, queer people and those experiencing homelessness, and to look at ending “discriminatory street checks” and to look at outfitting officers with body cameras.
Farnworth said his government is already planning to modernize the “outdated” 45-year-old Police Act, which he said is “out of step with our government’s approach” on issues including harm reduction and mental health.
When the legislature resumes this month, Farnworth said, he will introduce a motion to set up an all-party committee to talk to the public and experts on revamping the province’s policing legislation.
Krista Stelkia, a Simon Fraser University research associate who published a study this year on police oversight in B.C., said she was pleased to see Stewart take “a bold and public position on racism in policing.”
“The issues he raised for review are quite timely, needed, and have been raised as serious concerns by many for quite a long time,” Stelkia said. “Now it’s up to the province to decide if they’re serious about making police reform changes,” she continued, adding she looks forward to the response of police forces, which usually resist change and external review.
Vancouver police Chief Adam Palmer said if the province initiates a review of policing, “the VPD will participate fully.”
As mayor of Vancouver, Stewart is the chairman of the Vancouver police board, which provides civilian governance and oversight. But the B.C. government, Stewart said, controls most aspects of how policing is conducted, including funding levels, policing standards and use-of-force policies.
June Francis, co-chair of the Hogan’s Alley Society and a Simon Fraser University professor, applauded the mayor for acknowledging the systemic racism that is and has always been present in Vancouver.
“It isn’t very often,” the mayor said, “that we’re given a chance to reimagine something as fundamental and important as how our society protects its people.”
But Francis criticized the mayor for failing to announce concrete action on things he can control, such as responding to growing cries to reduce funding for the police department — the city’s single largest expenditure, more than 20 per cent of its operating budget — to spend more in other areas, such as housing, health and social services.
Asked Thursday whether the VPD budget is an appropriate size, Stewart said that question also needs to be reviewed by the province, saying: “If (Vancouver) council voted for a large cut to the police, the province could and would, I imagine, override that.”
B.C.’s former top cop said the time is right to question the size of police budgets.
Kash Heed, a former B.C. solicitor general, derided Stewart’s news conference as “a bunch of finger-pointing,” saying ”instead of leading and driving that change, he calls for another review?”
“The one area we haven’t had a review, where we should have a review, is from the auditor general on the cost of policing in B.C.”
“When we talk about defunding, it’s not at the extreme end of the spectrum where we’re going to get rid of police. We’re never going to get rid of the police,” Heed said.
“What they’re calling for is disbanding, defunding, divesting, whatever you want to call it, the current police model. The current police model is not working to serve the community.”
Heed blamed Stewart for deflecting to the province instead of pushing for reforms directly, pointing to the example of body cameras, saying Stewart’s police board has the power to implement such a policy if it chooses to do so.
Stewart’s announcement comes after protests denouncing police brutality and racism in Vancouver and cities across Canada, the U.S. and other parts of the world, sparked by the recent killings of Minneapolis man George Floyd, and others.