MAJOR VICTORY FOR CHOICE AT THE END OF LIFE BC CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING MONDAY, MAY 13 / 7:00 PM SFU HARBOUR CENTRE ROOM 1800 515 WEST HASTINGS STREET VANCOUVER, BC 2012Annual Report HONOURARY DIRECTORS David Barrett, O.C., O.B.C. Bill Deverell Darlene Marzari Thomas Berger, O.C., Q.C. David H. Flaherty Alex MacDonald, Q.C. Neil Boyd Hon. John Fraser, P. C., Q.C. Rafe Mair Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Gordon Gibson, O.B.C. Hon. Stephen Owen, P. C., Q.C. P. C., C.C., O.B.C., Q.C. Mike Harcourt, O.C. Svend Robinson Andrew Coyne Rev. Phillip Hewett David Suzuki, C.C., O.B.C. Hugh Curtis Art Lee BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF Lindsay Lyster PRESIDENT Conrad Hadland (until June) David Eby EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (until Dec 2012) Robert Holmes, Q.C. PRESIDENT Shirley Heafey Josh Paterson EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (from Jan 2013) (until June) Jacob Hunter Jim Braunagel OFFICE MANAGER Megan Vis-Dunbar VICE PRESIDENT Stephen Katz Carmen Cheung COUNSEL/ACTING LITIGATION John Dixon SECRETARY DIRECTOR Ross Lambertson Margaret Dudgeon LEGAL ASSISTANT Alan Rowan TREASURER Ed Levy Charlotte Kingston COMMUNITY OUTREACH Reem Bahdi Greg McMullen COORDINATOR Warren Bourgeois Raji Mangat COUNSEL Stan Persky Alister Browne Kate Milberry PROJECT MANAGER Kent Roach Michael Byers Grace Pastine LITIGATION DIRECTOR (on leave) Richard Rosenberg Jamie Cameron (until June) Stefanie Ratjen DEVELOPMENT MANAGER John Russell Paul Champ Alyssa Stryker CASEWORKER Tom Sandborn Larry Cohen Micheal Vonn POLICY DIRECTOR Steven Savitt Avigail Eisenberg (until June) Jeremy Shragge Michael Feld Kirk Tousaw Fritz Gaerdes Hannah van Voorthuysen (until June) Tom Gore Reg Whitaker Jason Gratl Eric Wyness Muriel Groves BRITISH COLUMBIA CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION Publications mail agreement The Democratic Commitment is a publication of the British Columbia Civil 40045354 Liberties Association. The Association was established in 1962 and is the oldest continuously active civil liberties association in Canada. Its mandate is to preserve, RETURN UNDELIVERABLE defend, maintain and extend civil liberties and human rights in British CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: Columbia and across Canada. 900 Helmcken Street, 2nd floor Vancouver, British Columbia BN: 888466844RR0001 Canada V6Z 1B3 Tel: 604.687.2919 B.C. Gaming Policy and Enforcement email: [email protected] Branch of the Ministry of Public www.bccla.org Safety and Solicitor General Contents PRESIDENT’S REPORT / LINDSAY LYSTER / 4 ABOUT / 2012 BY THE NUMBERS / 5 VICTORIES FOR RIGHTS / 6 MAJOR VICTORY FOR CHOICE AT END OF LIFE / 7 TRANSITIONS / NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR / 8 CASEWORK / COMPLAINT ASSISTANCE & LAW REFORM / 9 POLICY / LAWFUL ACCESS / 13 POLICY / MEDICAL CANNABIS / 14 LITIGATION / OUR THANKS TO THE LEGAL COMMUNITY / 15 COMMUNITY / MEMBERSHIP / 21 COMMUNITY / VOLUNTEERS / 22 PUBLIC EDUCATION / REACHING OUT / 23 TREASURER’S REPORT / 24 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS / 25 COMMUNITY / EVENTS / 26 COMMUNITY / SUPPORTING THE BCCLA / 27 LIBERTY AWARDS GALA / DAVID SUZUKI / 28 PRESIDENT’S REPORT / LINDSAY LYSTER 2012 marked the fiftieth of law. On the drug front, we have advocated for an year of the BCCLA’s fight evidence-based approach that would see the end of to achieve justice, liberty, punitive sanctions for drug use and an emphasis on equality and the protection harm reduction that focuses on the medical needs of people’s fundamental of addicted persons. This approach has consistently rights. It was a year of guided our positions, whether making submissions exciting success for the to parliamentary committees on drug policy reform, BCCLA, and a year of advocating for fair and liberal access to medical looking back and reflecting marijuana, or decrying invasive and discriminatory on the Association’s half century of accomplishment grow-op laws. and on the development of human rights and civil liberties in Canada. Fifty years has seen an increased emphasis by the BCCLA on the rights of the most marginalized Much is different now than when the BCCLA was among us. This has seen us argue for constitutional born in 1962, not least that we now have a Charter protection for Insite, which provides a safe place for of Rights and Freedoms and many other legal tools to injection drug users. It has seen us stand with First assist in the fight for justice and equality that were Nations people and sex workers to call the police unknown back then. In the early 1960s, few people and the justice system to account for the epidemic of beyond science fiction writers contemplated the violence against Aboriginal women and sex workers explosion in technology that allows us to expand in the downtown eastside and across this country. We human knowledge and creativity – and allows have advocated for queer rights, joining Little Sisters the BCCLA to advocate and communicate more in their fight against Canada customs’ discriminatory effectively – while at the same time giving govern- refusal to allow them to import books and maga- ments and powerful private actors unheralded zines, and with James Chamberlain in ensuring that opportunities to spy on us, amass vast stores of the public school system is inclusive of all families, data about us, and thereby put the very concept of including those with same-sex parents. We have privacy to the test. advocated, alongside the valiant Gloria Taylor, for the right of the terminally ill to die with dignity. And The last fifty years have seen the Cold War replaced we will always argue passionately for the democratic by multiple post-modern “Wars” that have brought and fundamental right of every person to speak, to a multitude of threats to human rights and civil question, and to voice their dissent – a series of rights liberties. The Association continues to fight these that are increasingly at issue across Canada. threats, both through legislative reform and in the courts. On the national security front, we have Just as our founders 50 years ago could not have challenged the Canadian government to uphold the foreseen the world we live in today, or the shape of right of those abroad to be free from arbitrary ar- the threats to our civil liberties that we face in 2013, rest, detention and torture. This includes detainees so too we cannot hope to predict the challenges at risk of torture when turned over to the Afghan our successors will face in 2062 or beyond. What forces by Canadian soldiers, the Canadian child we can commit to doing is nurturing and passing soldier, Omar Khadr, languishing behind bars in on to them the same commitment to human rights Guantanamo, and Maher Arar, the Canadian victim and fundamental freedoms that have been the of extraordinary rendition from the United States foundation of this Association for the last 50 years. to Syria. The BCCLA is committed to continuing to lead in the fight for human rights in Canada, and to tackling Closer to home, we have advocated for the rights the new and previously unimagined threats to those of those detained here in Canada, whether by rights in creative, strategic and effective ways. We way of so-called “preventative detention” or on look forward not only to your support, but to your immigration security certificates, to due process involvement in this work. 4 THE DEMOCRATIC COMMITMENT / 2012 Annual Report 2012 BY THE NUMBERS For 2012, the year of the Dragon, the BCCLA celebrated a fiery 50th Anniversary with friends and supporters from across British Columbia. Here’s our golden anniversary year in facts and figures. 87% 87% decrease in Taser use by police forces thanks to BCCLA advocacy around the Robert Dziekanski tragedy. Almost 2,000 people helped by our lawyers and case- 2,000 workers, across BC, including the families of several people killed or seriously injured in police custody. 5,686 people attending 97 events hosted by the BCCLA 5,686 or featuring BCCLA speakers, an increase of 32% in our annual audience. The inaugural meeting of our new Families for 1st Police Accountability group of families affected by police-involved and in-custody deaths. 36 active cases for our litigation department, including 36 Gloria Taylor and our legal team’s remarkable victory to protect her right to a death with dignity. 9 handbooks and scholarly reports released on topics 9 as diverse as BC’s justice system, how to protect your medical record privacy, the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry and the Internet spy bill proposal. 2,000 BCCLA “apps” teaching people about arrest 2,000 rights downloaded by Android and iPhone users in the first two months of release. THE DEMOCRATIC COMMITMENT / 2012 Annual Report 5 2012BCCLA VICTORIES FOR RIGHTS Thanks to our vigorous casework, litigation and public education programs, the BCCLA regularly helps initiate or change the course of policies related to free speech, democracy and accountability for government and other powerful actors. Here is a selection of our favourites: BC FINALLY HAS INDEPENDENT KEEPING THE PRESSURE ON EVEN INVESTIGATIONS OF POLICE WHEN THE CASE SEEMS LOST In 2011 we welcomed the news that the We never gave up on the Paul Boyd case, even Independent Investigations Office was being after the Crown issued their “clear” statement created. In 2012, the IIO finally came into being, suggesting that there was no basis for criminal after two public inquiries recommended it, charges in the very controversial 2007 shooting and years of advocacy for its establishment by on Granville Street in Vancouver. Our advo- the BCCLA. As the IIO opened its doors, its cacy online and in the media was spotted by a mandate was defined to include police-related Winnipeg resident who turned over videotape incidents resulting in death or serious harm, of Boyd’s final moments that confirmed our but “serious harm” does not include allegations analysis of the coroner’s inquest evidence – Boyd of sexual assault that do not result in disfigure- was crawling and disarmed when he was shot ment or substantial loss of bodily function.