When police rape, can Stan Lowe
be trusted to oversee investigations?

Those are among the powers granted to B.C.’s police complaint commissioner. But he colluded with Vancouver cops to cover up gratuitous violence against a disabled woman

December 20, 2015

 

The news that Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted of raping 18 women while with Oklahoma City police should serve as a stark reminder of a weakness in B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office. Legislation specifically excludes the IIO from investigating police for rape or child abuse. In those cases, police investigate police. In matters involving the RCMP, the cop-on-cop investigation gets a review by the Commission for Public Complaints, the Mounties’ own in-house “oversight” agency.

That alone is cause for serious concern. But it gets worse.

For all other B.C. cops, the case gets reviewed by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, headed by Stan Lowe and the former head of Vancouver Police Professional Standards, Rollie Woods. Those two helped VPD Professional Standards cover up constable Taylor Robinson’s assault on a disabled woman named Sandy Davidsen.

No Police Act or criminal investigation took place until after the media found out. That was more than three weeks after the OPCC found out and over six weeks after VPD Professional Standards found out. Since then Woods, OPCC investigative analyst Andrea Spindler and OPCC admissibility analyst Anthony Parker have continued to lie about the case.

Another highly disturbing example involves the OPCC cover-up of New Westminster cop Sukhwinder “Vinnie” Singh Dosanjh.

And the OPCC holds authority over investigations into rape and child abuse?

Except for Quebec, B.C. is the only province that allows police to investigate each other for sexual assault.

As far as I know, no one has asked why this is so, let alone criticized the problem. Both the B.C. Liberal government and NDP opposition wholeheartedly supported the legislation, while the B.C. Civil Liberties Association cheered from the sidelines. B.C.’s media couldn’t care less.

It’s sick. It’s dangerous. But that’s the way B.C.’s establishment wants it.

Related:
Sexual misconduct and rape: Cops cover up for cops
Where’s Farnworth? Where’s Eby?
Where are the media and SJWs?
Read more about B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner
Read more about B.C.’s inadequate Independent Investigations Office
Read more news and comment about police accountability in B.C.