The committee that advises the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) on the needs and perspectives of Black and African-descent communities has cut ties with the force and accused police leadership of disrespecting and dismissing its members.
The African Descent Advisory Committee (ADAC) is “suspending its engagement with the VPD,” former co-chair Sadie Kuehn wrote in a March 28 letter to the Vancouver Police Board.
“We didn’t and don’t expect everything we say and think and [every] recommendation to be taken up and/or taken forward,” Kuehn said in an interview with CBC News on Sunday.
“What we do expect in any situation is a level of decency and respect.”
ADAC was created by the police board in late 2021 in response to public outcry and demonstrations against police violence and use of force against Black people following the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
Kuehn and 14 others — including doctors, lawyers, academics and activists — agreed to serve as members for two years starting in February 2022.
But she said their treatment has been discouraging and five members had already resigned before their committee terms expired in February.
Kuehn says while there was no single incident that triggered ADAC’s decision to suspend its work, the police board’s decision last June to bring back the school liaison officer program before committee members had been invited to speak on the issue was a turning point.
“Even if we were being generous, we would say that the board was just rude and their behaviour was totally unacceptable,” Kuehn told CBC, adding that the board has not apologized for how the decision over the liaison officer program — which has raised concerns among parents of Black and Indigenous children — was handled.
In her address to the Vancouver Police Board, Sadie Kuehn, the co-chair of the VPD’s African Descent Advisory Committee, called the decision to cancel a vote to reconsider the school program “insulting.”
The board’s mandate requires the VPD to have an advisory committee for African-descent communities, and it remains unclear how or when the board will fill or re-establish the committee.
When CBC News contacted the Vancouver Police Board for comment on the committee’s concerns, a spokesperson directed the request to the VPD.
VPD Sgt. Steve Addision thanked the advisory committee members and said the force has “always appreciated and respected” their work.
“We had hoped this committee would continue working with us to enhance trust, improve community relationships and create safer neighbourhoods,” Addison said in an email to CBC News on Saturday.
“Although the committee has chosen not to continue its direct involvement, our work will continue,” he said, adding that VPD has not heard directly from committee members and hopes to meet with them directly to discuss their decision.
Move ’embarrassing’ for VPD: advocate
Police reform advocate Tonye Aganaba worries that without the committee to represent community concerns, police mistreatment of Black people could go unchecked.
“That leaves the folks who are actually being targeted, the people who need their voices to be heard, with no one to represent them,” Aganaba, a community organizer with Policing-Free Schools Vancouver, said Sunday.
The move will damage the already-fragile trust between police and many Black and African-descent people and communities in Vancouver, they said.
“For the VPD to waste this opportunity and really disrespect some of the hardest-working, well known, well loved African-descent people in our city — it’s just embarrassing,” they said.
“It just reinforces the idea that we have systemic racism in policing.”
Aganaba added that ADAC’s departure is a symptom of dysfunction and a lack of accountability on the police board, after its vice-chair resigned in January and accused the board of conflicts of interest and Mayor Ken Sim of political interference.
CBC News contacted the office of B.C. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, who appoints members of the police board, for comment.
On Sunday, a spokesperson directed CBC to Farnworth’s comments to Global News, in which he called the committee’s move “concerning and unfortunate” and said upcoming changes to the Police Act will help address some of the issues raised.