The decision whether to charge any of the Vancouver police officers involved in the 2015 beating death of Sechelt businessman Myles Gray is now in the hands of the B.C. Prosecution Service.
The Independent Investigations Office (IIO) referred the file to Crown counsel this week following a 41-month investigation. It was a difficult case for the IIO because of the number of police officers who were present when the unarmed 33-year-old was fatally beaten in a backyard in South Burnaby; because there were no civilian witnesses; because one of the police witnesses refused for a time to cooperate with the investigation; and because Gray suffered so many serious injuries that outside forensic pathologists had to be brought in to help determine cause of death.
The IIO’s move brings the highly disturbing case a step closer to the justice Myles Gray’s family has been seeking, but it does not guarantee the Crown will lay charges. In fact, statistically the odds are not high.
In its most recent annual report ending March 2017, the IIO had only an 18 per cent charge approval rate. Of 66 cases against police officers that had been referred to the Crown since September 2012, no charges were laid in 47. Only 10 charges had been approved during that period and of these, four resulted in guilty pleas, two in a stay of proceedings, two in acquittal, and two were in process.
“The number of charges approved is not a measure of the IIO’s success,” the report claimed. “The IIO considers thorough and timely resolution of investigations as a measure of success. In order for Crown Counsel to approve a charge, there must be a substantial likelihood of conviction and a prosecution must be required in the public interest.
“The difference between the IIO’s referral standard and Crown Counsel’s charge approval standard [is] significant.”
Since that report was published, however, things have changed at B.C.’s police oversight agency. Former Nova Scotia Crown attorney Ron MacDonald took over as the IIO’s chief civilian director in October 2017 and he promised to make some key improvements. Among those included in an IIO information bulletin issued last month to mark MacDonald’s first year on the job was this noteworthy item: “The IIO now only refers files that have a reasonable likelihood of charges being approved.”
Does that mean there is a reasonable likelihood of justice for Myles Gray?
We’ll have to wait for the Crown’s office to answer that one.
