The Canadian Institute's
2nd Annual Western Canadian Conference on
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Top Civil Litigation Developments of the Year
- Jeremy Poole
Partner
Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP - Cameron Ward
A. Cameron Ward & Company
- Lessons to be learned from Camaso v. Saanich
- An update on any appeals: Will the $354,000 judgment stand?
- When will the courts find gross negligence?
- Exposure of individual officers to liability
- Advice on officer notes
- When does the cause of action arise in negligent investigation?
- The duty to warn: is it being expanded?
- Developments in defamation
- Use of force
- Adverse consequences for naming officers personally
- Charter damages
- Can they now be awarded in criminal court?
- This year’s developments following Ward
- Practical implications of adverse judgments for police departments
- Policies, procedures and training
- Policies, procedures and training
Dealing with the Domino Effects from McNeil
Moderator:
- Inspector Ruben Sorge
Vancouver Police Department
Panelists:
- Geoff Crowe
Director of Legal Services
Edmonton Police Service - Ravi Hira, Q.C.
Affleck Hira Burgoyne LLP - Grant Wong
Deputy Regional Crown Counsel
B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General
- On what kinds of allegations are defence counsel seeking or not seeking disclosure?
- When charges against the officer were dismissed, are the incidents still subject to disclosure?
- What if a McNeil request is made during trial?
- The developing Scopelliti landscape
- What impact is McNeil having on police discipline?
- Managing the repercussions of officer deceit
- Why deceit may be the biggest problem facing police forces today
- Under what circumstances will an officer who has been deceitful in the past be useless as a witness in the future?
- Salvaging an officer as a potential witness
- HR policies police forces need to implement
- Changing the organizational culture
- Lessons from the U.S. experience
- Accommodating officers with problematic discipline records
- What constitutes reasonable limits on accommodation in this context?
- Resolving any difference between Crowns and police forces as to what needs to be disclosed
- Responding to the practical administrative challenges associated with requests
- Is McNeil’s influence extending beyond the content of the case itself?
- Disclosure creep: are the limitations in McNeil being left behind?
Investigating Police Corruption
- Special Agent Robert A. Schwinger
FBI, Baltimore Division - Janet Winteringham, Q.C.
Winteringham MacKay George Law Corporation
- Maintaining the integrity of the investigation
- confidentiality
- Identifying and meeting the challenges of prosecution
- Ensuring the safety of investigators
- Case studies
Luncheon Address: The Missing Women Inquiry: Observations from the Hearing Room
- Cameron Ward
A.Cameron Ward & Company
B.C.’s Amended Police Act: A Report Card
- David Butcher
Wilson‚ Buck‚ Butcher & Sears - Chief Constable Bob Rich
Abbotsford Police Department - Tom Stamatakis
President
Vancouver Police Union
- An update on judicial reviews and other cases that have tested interpretation of sections of the Act and the powers of the Commissione
- How responding to judicial review applications is affecting the Commissioner’s financial resources and ability to hold hearings
- The cost of administering the changes to the Act
- Can the commissioner call a public hearing? – an update on the Dickhout case at the Supreme Court of Canada
- Dealing with the practical problems of meeting the prescribed deadlines
- Responding to uncooperative complainants
Understanding the Implications of the 2011 Amendments to Alberta’s Police Act
- Bonnie Bokenfohr
Field LLP‚ Edmonton
- The impact of a new definition for “complainant”
- The addition of discoverability to the limitation provisions
- How will it be interpreted?
- Resolving matters “not of a serious nature”
- Factors to consider
- Penalties available
- Appeals to the Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB)
- The impact of two Alberta Court of Appeal decisions that turned the whole review process on its head
- How will hearings proceed? – a hearing de novo or an appellate review?
- If a review on the record, what constitutes the record?
- the LERB’s holding
- The effect of the Police Act amendments
- Statutory privilege over officer statements
- If the officer does not waive privilege, how can the LERB adjudicate the appeal?
- Can the LERB review privileged statements?
- Is this a factor in favour of a de novo hearing?
- Publication of disciplinary decisions
- An update on litigation involving interpretation of the Act
Effective Risk Management for Police Forces
- Sheila Sullivan
Executive Resource Officer
Vancouver Police Union
- Geoff Crowe
Director of Legal Services
Edmonton Police Service
- Identifying and managing key areas of legal risk for police forces
- High-speed pursuits
- Care of persons in custody: lessons from the Frank Paul Inquiry
- Dealing with members of the public who have mental-health issues
- Confidential informants
- Undercover operations
- Evolving guidelines on use of force
- Public Safety Canada guidelines
- The New RCMP policy
- Preventing incorrect judicial findings that could impair an officer’s future ability to testify
- Why this is a risk-management issue
- Ethical standards and their role in mitigating risks
- Detecting and correcting systemic errors
- Should internal risk-management reviews be subject to disclosure to the Crown, police oversight bodies or access requests?
- Considerations when hiring, training and supervising
- Use of apologies where apology legislation is in force
- Managing risks associated with requests for assistance from other forces
- What happens if someone borrowed from another jurisdiction gets injured?
- Who should pay for workers’ comp coverage?
- Should coverage be obtained in the host province?
- Avoiding huge premium increases in the home province if there are injuries
- Contractual risk allocation
- Managing litigation risk
- The impact of risk-management analysis on police oversight and internal investigations and prosecutions
Meeting the Challenges of Human Rights Complaints within Police Forces
- Derek Cranna
Partner
Field LLP‚ Edmonton
- Responding to the duty to accommodate
- Physical disabilities
- Mental health disabilities, including disorders that may pose a risk to the officer and/or the public
- Substance abuse
- Identifying bona fide occupational requirements in the police context
- What meets the test of undue hardship in large forces?
- Preventing and dealing with discrimination and harassment
- Multiplicity of fora
- Use of ADR
Dealing with Clashes at the Intersection of Police Complaints, Internal Investigations, Criminal Investigations and Civil Actions
- Peter M. Germain
Deputy Commisoner West - RCMP
- Police complaints as a way to get discovery/investigation in aid of a civil action
- Is there protection of materials generated by the police for Crown briefs?
- When a police officer seeks the documents?
- What, if any, rights do witnesses have to production of the police file that is really the Crown brief?
- Penner v. Niagara at the Supreme Court of Canada: issue estoppel
- If the CA case stands, will it kill the police complaints process?
- The impact of the 2010 changes to the rules of the BCSC
- Use immunity in the Police Act and Alberta legislation
- How real is the protection?
- Overlapping disclosure requirements: how do they work?
- Have changes to police legislation caused a spike in related civil actions?
- Are inherent conflicts of interest in some code-of-conduct investigations leading to pressure for civil remedies?
- Rulings in 2011
- The effect of the Basi case
Social Media and Policing: Like?
- R. Kyle Friesen
Counsel
Legal Advisory Section (RCMP Pacific Region) Dept. of Justice Canada
- Appropriate and inappropriate uses of social media in hiring
- Why doing a web search on a potential recruit could lead to trouble
- Drafting and implementing internal policies for employee use of social media
- Privacy considerations in the workplace
- Criticizing the employer online
- Post-retirement use of social media
- Personal safety considerations
- Social media in criminal investigations and prosecutions
- Material originating with the police such as public warnings and wanted posters
- Use of social media postings as evidence
- The impact of “citizen journalism” on police procedures
- Potential civil liability
- Defamation by and of police officers
- Copyright and trademark infringements
- Appropriate responses to abusive anti-police websites and postings
First Nations Policing: Making it Work in a Multijurisdictional Context
- Chief Supt. Brenda Butterworth-Carr
Director General
National Aboriginal Policing & Crime Prevention Services Contract & Aboriginal Policing‚ RCMP - Patty Cook
A/Chief Officer
Stl'atl'imx Tribal Police Services
- Who does what? – the challenges of policing in a multijurisdictional environment
- Understanding the role of the First Nation’s chief and council in the community
- The potential use of external resources on reserve and where they are appropriate
- Applicability of provincial l aws on reserve lands, including liquor laws and highway traffic statutes
- When does the Indian Act supersede provincial laws?
- Who has jurisdiction to enforce band by-laws, band resolutions, court-ordered banishment, and Indian Act by-laws and land codes? What happens in practice and by policy?
- Applicability of by-laws where reserves are within city limits
- Paramountcy principles and how they apply
- Laws of general application under the Indian Act
- The Alberta and Manitoba models
- When may police from non-First Nation forces enter reserve lands without Band Council permission?
- Addressing governance
- Management boards/police commissions/community consultative groups
- Training for members
- Mentorship
- Best practices for community tripartite agreements (CTAs)