Farnworth flips
the race card at natives
B.C.’s solicitor general knows how to protect cops
by manipulating inarticulate anger
February 28, 2023
The pandering report from a B.C. legislative committee
was likely directed by Solicitor General Mike Farnworth,
a long-time opponent of police accountability.
Two flip-flops and an inquiry in waiting: That’s the present status of the Prince George RCMP rape allegations more than three months after the Toronto Star revealed new information. B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth reversed his decision to do nothing after the B.C. First Nations Justice Council did the same.
The BCFN Justice Council’s about-face, made as the group joined three other native associations to demand action, came in a letter expressing inarticulate confusion. Farnworth, on the other hand, again comes across as a canny cynic who knows how to manipulate that state of mind.
Although details have yet to come, his inquiry might seem promising. But what kind of result can be expected after 20 years of victim deaths, pensioned-off cops, memory lapses and missing evidence?
And what will the inquiry address? The allegations only? Or the cover-up too?
An issue the inquiry won’t address is one that Farnworth has evaded throughout his cop-friendly career: In matters relating to sexual misconduct especially, B.C. needs to end the practice of cops investigating cops. That’s once again demonstrated in this scandal, but to no effect. No one with a voice in public discourse (that excludes this website) either understands or has the gumption to speak out.
That’s indicated by the most recent media coverage. The subject of civilian investigation doesn’t rate mention. Politicians won’t acknowledge it. Neither will journalists or the establishment’s salaried “activists,” the Pivot Legal Society and B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
But this furor heightens another topic of discouragement: inarticulate, ignorant native spokespeople. As far as I know, B.C. has no other kind.
We’re not supposed to say so, but why? On this project I’ve often called out non-native (usually white) politicians, journalists and poverty pimps for their manifest stupidity, as well as their grasping opportunism and craven suckholing. In over a decade of covering police accountability I’ve developed far more contempt for those three groups than for cops.
Like B.C.’s other native spokespeople, BCFN Justice Council
director Judith Sayers says nothing of substance.
But any hopes for effective native participation are continually disappointed by native participants. They say nothing substantial. A typical example shows BCFN Justice Council director Judith Sayers complaining about a decision from the Independent Investigations Office last November. A number of her emotional statements could be summed up by this one: “We just feel like nothing ever comes down on the side of Indigenous people.”
Did the IIO neglect evidence, interpret it wrong, treat witnesses unfairly, make errors of fact or logic, or commit any other fault in its investigation and recommendation on charges? The lawyer, honorary doctor of laws and university chancellor doesn’t say. She just responds emotionally. Along with often-heard historical grievances and cliched jargon, that’s about all any native leaders say.
While native outrage finally spurred him into action, Farnworth knows how to pander to cliches of racial grievance while protecting the cop status quo. That’s shown in B.C.’s most recent legislative committee on policing, to which Farnworth referred when announcing his inquiry. The committee’s April 2022 report, most likely written on Farnworth’s orders and with direction from the ex-cops who hold senior positions in his ministry, constitutes a vague, confused mess. That gives Farnworth and company a free hand in interpreting the committee’s recommendations.
The pandering comes in the report’s PC jargon and implied promises of native sinecures. The recommendations don’t address the most serious problems blocking police accountability but they probably sound nice to people suffering from woke susceptibility, poor reading comprehension and zero analytical abilities.
Like B.C. journalists. And apparently B.C. native spokespeople.
Sure, the recommendations say something about native oversight of investigations into police, and that oversight might be extended to certain other groups. But that’s limited to cases concerning some people and not others. Furthermore “oversight” isn’t even defined.
And who would be the overseers? The four groups that signed the February 22 letter to Farnworth—the First Nations Summit, the B.C. Assembly of First Nations and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs as well as the BCFN Justice Council—hardly inspire confidence.
When, prior to February 3, Postmedia presented the BCFN Justice Council with damning evidence of an RCMP Prince George cover-up, the group gave the report a Farnworth-worthy brush-off. Their excuse? “We do not have anyone who currently has the time or individual/collective capacity to shift their focus.” Forget about diligence, let alone priorities. And don’t even mention commitment.
Other than dismissing a key development, what has the BCFN Justice Council said about the 20-year-old Prince George allegations prior to this month? Nothing that I can find.
As for the UBCIC, its members have chosen Stewart Phillip as leader for, so far, eight consecutive three-year terms. This “grand chief” among chiefs has always been an utter dolt who talks at great length without making a point or drawing to a conclusion.
With long experience as a manipulative poverty pimp, David Eby
might have channeled Melanie Mark’s breakdown into a partisan attack.
Further disappointing has been native participation in the legislature. Melanie “torture chamber” Mark’s raving lunatic lack of proportion revealed much deeper personal problems than her inability to handle Question Period. As leader of the opposition and then finance minister, Carole James held the highest positions of any aboriginal in the legislature but, like some party leaders and most cabinet ministers, was probably managed closely by grand viziers. Other native MLAs like BC Liberal Ellis Ross and especially Green MLA and serial sell-out Adam Olsen simply follow the squareheads on police issues.
The native groups’ February 22 statement says little outside of an emotional outcry. All the oft-repeated grievances and emotive cliches are there. The spokespeople offer no specifics on how to bring about police accountability. They could have cut their dumb-ass statement to five dumb-ass words: “Stuff’s gotta change big time!”
Still following the lead of non-native reporters, the native groups accepted the ludicrous idea that RCMP “whistleblowers” Lisa Mackenzie and Garry Kerr took a brave stand for justice. But the chronology of years-long intervals between their all-too-few efforts shows anything but vigilance.
What has the BCFN Justice Council or any native group ever done about the Taylor Robinson cover-up? Nothing at all, even in the face of a three-way suppression that strongly suggests contempt towards natives. Indigenous groups passively left this joint scandal of Vancouver police and B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner to Scott Bernstein and Doug King of the Pivot Legal Society. Ever mindful of their careers, these white American poverty pimps joined the VPD/OPCC cover-up.
Native spokespeople hold enormous stature and could greatly influence public discourse and public policy. But by repeating long-heard grievances and emotive cliches they contribute nothing to police accountability. That shows, for example, in their presentations to legislative committees on policing issues, and in the pandering response of last April’s committee report.
As an autocratic premier, David Eby might exert greater control
over cabinet ministers. But as a social justice phony he won’t
likely interfere with Farnworth’s cop status quo.
Mostly white decision-makers are expected to cringe in shame at hyper-emotionalized words like genocide, colonialism, settler, residential schools and so on. But people like Farnworth (along with Premier David Eby and the rest of B.C.’s cop-friendly establishment) would much rather listen to that stuff than to specific recommendations for police accountability. Just imagine the elite’s horror if native spokespeople made statements like these:
Investigations related to police sexual misconduct must be done by civilians, not police.
While the latter cases should take priority, all allegations of police misconduct should be investigated by civilians.
All cases of RCMP misconduct must be brought under provincial authority, ultimately to face civilian investigation too. The RCMP’s Civilian [sic] Review and Complaints Commission should have no authority in B.C.
The legislature must fix the structural and funding problems of B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office, thereby ending the unacceptable delays.
The Police Act needs to subject B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner to transparent public disclosures and to accountability under an effective ombudsperson or similar authority.
Evidence of past cover-ups by the OPCC and the RCMP’s CRCC must be investigated.
If natives would only say that, media would listen and politicians would find it very difficult not to act. Natives have that power.
But they squander it with spokespeople who belabour historical guilt and fashionable jargon. The tactic does attract money and deference (mixed with condescension). But it does nothing to stop the cover-ups.
That’s why Farnworth and the rest of B.C.’s cop-friendly establishment just love to hear about genocide, residential schools, colonialism, racism—and anything but specific ways to hold cops accountable. So there’s nothing to stop the cover-ups from continuing.
Related:
RCMP cover up rape allegations against Prince George Mounties
The supposed whistleblowers are part of the problem.
So are the media, not to mention B.C.’s legislature,
legal establishment and SJWs
Decolonizing corruption
B.C. wants to retain cop cover-ups, but with native participation
under a confused, weird and racially exclusive Police Act
An open letter to the Union of British Columbia
Indian Chiefs and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association
Police cover-ups are more common than you might realize.
But you’re uniquely positioned to address the problem
The cop status quo matters
B.C. stands ready to manipulate identity politics
to support OPCC corruption
Read more about B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office
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