Advocates, family of man killed by RCMP launch 'people's tribunal' to probe police

Nono Shen · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Mar 15, 2025 3:03 PM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

Laura Holland's dependable shook with emotion arsenic she talked astir her astute and affectionate son, saying she is "tired of waiting" for justness for him. 

Jared Lowndes, oregon Jay arsenic his household called him, was changeable doubly successful the backmost by constabulary arsenic helium sat successful his conveyance astatine a Tim Hortons drive-thru successful Campbell River, B.C., successful July 2021. 

Holland said astatine a quality league connected Friday that her household was torn isolated pursuing her son's decease astatine age 38, and she has been doing everything she tin to question justness for him and different Indigenous radical who person been killed by constabulary successful the province. 

"The lone spark of beingness that we person is that our loved ones are pushing america due to the fact that if we don't talk retired … they volition support sidesplitting us," she said. 

Holland joined with ineligible advocates and different groups connected Friday to denote a "people's tribunal" to analyse crimes committed by constabulary against racialized communities. 

"Systemic racism fuels an epidemic of constabulary violence" against these communities, said a quality merchandise from the groups, which includes the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society, Care not Cops and Justice for Jared. 

WATCH | Laura Holland says justness strategy protects constabulary implicit Indigenous people: 

The B.C. Prosecution Service past twelvemonth declined to laic charges against the 3 officers progressive successful the shooting.

The work said Lowndes, from the Wet'suwet'en Nation in bluish B.C., had reversed his conveyance into a constabulary vehicle, tried to carnivore spray officers and had stabbed a constabulary canine to death.

The B.C. RCMP did not instantly respond to a petition for remark astir the "people's tribunal."

Holland said her lad was reading Schindler's List by the clip helium was 12, that helium ever did his champion to instrumentality attraction of people, hugged everyone helium knew and helped his elders. 

"It conscionable seems impossible, and the lone mode for our household and (other) families to person immoderate justice, to find immoderate semblance of justice, is to person a people's tribunal." 

Holland said the tribunal volition connection a accidental for members and families who mislaid their loved ones owed to constabulary unit to speech astir racism and different unlawful practices wrong Canada's constabulary forces. 

The tribunal volition stitchery and stock accusation astir crimes by police, the groups said. 

Tracking of police-involved deaths successful Canada shows Black radical died astatine six times the complaint of their achromatic counterparts, portion Indigenous radical dice astatine 8 times the complaint of those who are white, according to the advocates.

The tribunal's archetypal lawsuit volition beryllium held Saturday successful Vancouver's Downtown Eastside earlier travelling across B.C.

Families to 'take backmost narrative'

Latoya Farrell, argumentation unit counsel with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Indigenous communities person been over-policed and under-protected, and the forum could radiance a airy connected systemic failures of instrumentality enforcement and the ineligible system.

"We've seen clip and clip again that the communicative successful the nationalist is often detrimental to the credibility of some the assemblage and the idiosyncratic who was killed," she said. "We spot that the authorities and constabulary power that communicative successful a mode to denigrate from a person's diagnostic successful bid to warrant wherefore they merit to beryllium killed."

She said having the tribunal volition let families to "take backmost that narrative," to archer their broadside of the communicative and to "rectify the harm" that the authorization has done to their loved ones, not conscionable successful sidesplitting them but harming their representation and legacy. 

Holland said present is besides a "critical time" for members of the Indigenous assemblage to rally unneurotic fixed determination has been truthful overmuch quality lately, with politicians denying remains recovered astatine erstwhile residential schoolhouse sites and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's leaked memo that suggested relocating Indigenous radical from the Downtown Eastside. 

Meenakshi Mannoe, representing the advocacy radical Defund 604, said the tribunal could assistance supply oversight of police.

"It's a community-based forum that's going to uplift the voices of straight impacted household members, alternatively than investing powerfulness successful assemblage tools of authorities and lawyers and academics. It's putting that powerfulness backmost into the hands of community," said Mannoe.