This is to apply leverage to rogue BC RCMP officers abusing their powers, while not doing the job they are paid to do -- investigate, intelligently, and enforce, lawfully. 

A stitch in time saves nine.   Ensuring Legal Aid BC can fund defence lawyer fees at market rates from charge approval to the accused entering a plea will provide protection to the accused and avert police misusing their powers in criminal prosecution.

Legal Aid BC only provides funding if the accused pleads to the charges or if the prosecutor recommends a jail sentence. The choice is plead to a crime you didn't commit or you're on your own.

Many accused rely on thinly spread pro bono representation or even go without representation, leading to unfair trials and potentially unjust outcomes.

The RCMP's lax accountability framework dovetails into Legal Aid BC policy (with BC Crown Counsel Policy preference for stays) and lets BC RCMP officers behave outside the bounds of the BC Police Act, without consequences. 

Being unable to anticipate which accused will be defended is key to counterbalance roguish behaviour and refocus police efforts.

Keeping funding allocation confidential until charge approval is essential. Opening up the field to all interested defence lawyers is also key.  Offering realistic compensation will facilitate broader interest. Legal Aid BC currently provides funding for defence lawyer fees at rates that are about half of market rates.  

This proposal should shorten prosecution timelines, by intervening earlier in the prosecution process, i.e. at approval through plea.  This should allow charges that should be withdrawn, to be withdrawn and those that should be resolved, resolved by law, rather than a default process -- staying charges.  

There is a pool of about 9,400 stayed cases (17%) per year that could be cases with lax investigation and/or Charter violations.  In those cases, accused refused to concede to any charge.

We urge the government of British Columbia to address this pressing issue by increasing Legal Aid BC funding by 15%, so it meets real-world requirements.  Allocate $5000 (on average) for 3000+ lower income accused and take it from the Solicitor General's budget, as insurance against misuse of criminal prosecution and incentive to move forward with BC Police Reform.

This change is critical to protecting low income accused from BC RCMP bad behaviour, thereby rebuilding trust in the justice system and safeguarding the rights of all individuals, especially the most vulnerable among us.

For those accused of crimes, having access to qualified defence is not a luxury but a necessity to protect oneself against potential abuses of police power.

Such funding will provide vulnerable populations, like myself, the resources needed to have competent, dedicated legal representation. 

The RCMP's lax accountability framework dovetails into Legal Aid BC policy (with BC Crown Counsel Policy preference for stays) and lets BC RCMP officers behave outside the bounds of the BC Police Act, without consequences. 

Who makes the ideal victim? Who has the least power to hold BC RCMP accountable? The low income accused. 

I suspect that the same technique that was used on me has been used for decades by many BC RCMP officers, who police Indigenous communities and peoples.

There will likely be more positive secondary benefits from this change, namely, shortened prosecutions and less labour for prosecutors who would eventually have to stay -- or drop -- the charges.  A colossal waste of time, money and energy.

Support this petition to demand that the government of British Columbia amends Legal Aid BC funding policies to ensure equitable access to legal defence for low income accused.

Sign the petition today and be part of an incremental change for a just and fair legal system.

Until the BC RCMP operates under the same accountability framework as municipal forces, low end populations are at risk.  Funding a defence compensates for bad police behaviour, by preventing it.

Prosecutors are protected, police are protected, but not the accused.

 

 

 

 

 

Why this image?

Imagine a BC RCMP officer threatening a vulnerable senior that if she didn't open her door, he would break it down, then cuffed, arrested and confined her overnight for dumping used espresso grounds into a knock-box, as evidenced by the disclosures.  That's what this system enables.  That's not the worst. The worst was filing fabricated evidence, as justification for chasing her from her home, with a threat of a fourth arrest and transport to a women's facility, during pre-vaccination COVID-19.  This was a simple noise dispute trumped up as criminal charges.