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Security footage released showing arrest of Indigenous man and granddaughter in Vancouver

Security footage showing the arrest of an Indigenous man and his 12-year-old granddaughter was released today by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) and Heiltsuk Nation.

Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, former judge and Senior Associate Counsel with Woodward & Company, will be applying to intervene on behalf of UBCIC in an ongoing BC human rights case against the VPD for wrongful detainment.

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“This intervention is about supporting a complaint that aims to fight systemic racism, hold institutions accountable, and offer redress for the racial profiling and wrongful detainment that Max and his granddaughter experienced at the hands of the VPD,” said Dr. Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. “This case embodies the systemic racism that we must all work together to eliminate.”

The footage is from an incident that took place in December, 2019 at the Bank of Montreal, located at 595 Burrard Street in Vancouver.

According to a backgrounder provided by the Heiltsuk Nation, Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter went to the bank for a previously scheduled appointment to open her first bank account so that she could access money while she was away at basketball games and visiting family — and to teach her how to manage her own money.

During the appointment, Johnson and the girl provided their Indian Status cards and requested the new account. Johnson was then asked a series of security questions about his account activity, which he answered.

Eventually, they were told there was a problem with Max’s card and they needed to wait for the cards to be returned. They waited on a bench inside the bank, and unbeknownst to them, the bank called 911 to report that they had committed a fraud.

After they had been waiting for about 30 minutes, Max and his granddaughter were approached by two police officers from the VPD, and they were taken outside to the busy street to be separated, handcuffed, searched and questioned.

Eventually, the two were released without charges after the officers determined that a fraud had not taken place.

“In the end, the bank had recorded Max’s status card number incorrectly in their computer system, and there was a typo on his granddaughter’s card, which was later easily corrected,” said the Heiltsuk Nation. “If Max and his granddaughter were white, this would have been handled much differently.”

The Nation also rejected the VPD’s statement of defense, which they said took a “colour-blind” approach.

“We completely reject the VPD’s colour-blind statement of defence, which is tone deaf and fails to acknowledge or address the systemic racism that Indigenous people like Max and his granddaughter, experience every day at the hands of police,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip.

The statement from the VPD says that the officers “followed correct police procedure and appropriately exercised his discretion in detaining the complainants.”

The VPD added that, despite that, the constable apologized that the incident had occurred — “as he would to any other person that had been detained or arrested on incorrect grounds.”



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