VANCOUVER - Frank Paul spent the last night of his life crawling on his hands and knees at the police station, from where he was dragged to a police wagon and then dumped, drunk and soaking wet, in a back alley where he died.

But Paul's family heard a starkly different explanation from police when they were finally called about his death on the night of Dec. 6, 1998.

"They said he died in a hit-and-run and that he was found in a ditch,'' Paul's cousin, Peggy Clement, said from the New Brunswick community of Elsipogtog, formerly known as Big Cove.

"And he died in early December but it was the middle of January by the time we received word he had died,'' she said.

On Tuesday, almost a decade after the family found out about Paul's death, Clement will be the first witness to testify in Vancouver at a long-awaited inquiry into what happened the night he died.

Clement said she's anxious, but she's hoping some of the lingering questions that have dogged the family for so long will finally be answered about her cousin, whom she last saw at his mother's funeral in Maine in 1986.

Since hearing the official police explanation, Clement saw a videotape of Paul's last hours at the police station, where he had been taken to the drunk tank for the second time on the night he died.

"We just started crying, it was so disturbing,'' Clement said of what she and eight other members of Paul's family saw on the videotape, released to them by the police complaint commissioner in 2003.

"The disturbing part was when we saw him crawling around and we saw the wet stain.''

The stain had been left behind by Paul's rain-soaked clothing as he was dragged by the arms by a police officer.

"It was really sad and it just made us angry. We couldn't get over what took place. It was so disturbing, oh my goodness.''

Vancouver police spokesman Tim Fanning was not available for comment Sunday.

Paul's official cause of death was hypothermia.

Police claimed they tried to take Paul, a Mi'kmaq originally from New Brunswick, to a detox centre but when he refused, they dropped him off in an alley, where officers believed he'd be fine.

For Steven Kelleher, the lawyer representing the family, one big question about Paul's fate begs an answer: "Why?''

"Why was there such a profound and unanimous indifference to this man's life and death? Lethal indifference.''

At the time, former police chief Jamie Graham said an inquiry into Paul's death wasn't necessary.

Kelleher said the inquiry that has come almost a decade after Paul died will focus on some key systemic issues.

"I think you'll be absolutely shocked,'' Kelleher said. "It's the first time that a public inquiry has looked at a specific incident as it works its way through the components of the justice system.''

The Police Complaints Commissioner, several aboriginal groups and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association have demanded an inquiry for years from the provincial government.

Besides examining the circumstances surrounding Paul's death, the inquiry will look at the response of public bodies including the Vancouver police department, the provincial ambulance service, the coroner's service, the Police Complaints Commission and the criminal justice branch of the Attorney General's Ministry.

It will also focus on the health care and social services available to people who are intoxicated by alcohol or drugs and the policies followed in dealing with them.

Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, which will participate in the inquiry, said he wants to know why it took the government so long to call an inquiry.

The probe, led by retired judge William Davies, will also have to grapple with what kind of system is in place when someone dies in police custody, Mollard said.

"Statistics show that deaths in custody in the province of British Columbia are not a rare occurrence, in fact they're a common occurrence.''

According to the coroner's service, Mollard said, an average of 18 people a year since 1992 have died while in the custody of municipal police forces and the RCMP.

"I'm not suggesting that in every one of those (cases) the police are responsible for the death,'' he stressed.

What's most disturbing, Mollard said, is that police in British Columbia investigate themselves after an in-custody death.

"It's a very troubling and not public-confidence-boosting system that's in place and ultimately it hinders policing and if you have the public remaining skeptical, and in fact disbelieving police stories, it's difficult for police to do their job.''

In Paul's case, an internal investigation led to brief suspensions of the police officers involved, but the police complaints commissioner at the time ruled out a further inquiry.

The new probe was triggered by questions raised by his successor about the initial investigation.

Mollard said an independent civilian agency is needed, similar to the Special Investigations Unit in Ontario.

But Kimberly Murray, a lawyer and executive director of Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, which is also participating in the inquiry, said Ontario's system isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Many of the investigators on the special Ontario unit are retired police officers, she said.

"If B.C.'s looking at creating some sort of police investigation body then we think we can help the inquiry with making sure it doesn't make the same mistakes we've made in Ontario,'' said Murray, whose group examines policing matters and coroners' inquests as part of its advocacy work for urban aboriginals in Ontario.

Murray said she hopes to use the recommendations that come out of this inquiry to benefit aboriginals in Ontario and other provinces.

In particular, the organization wants to highlight the issue of police across Canada having the authority to arrest intoxicated individuals and put them in drunk tanks.

"We've been seeing at the inquests that we've been doing that that actually has been killing people,'' she said. "People in that kind of state need medical attention, not police attention.''