In the wake of Wednesday night's riot in Vancouver following the Canucks' 4-0 loss, an investigator who examined the 1994 Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver says key recommendations that emerged 17 years ago went unheeded.

Police, event organizers and the city's public transit system did not heed the lessons learned from that riot, Bob Whitelaw told CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.

Whitelaw was hired by the B.C. Police Commission and the Attorney General as a freelance writer to help investigate the 1994 riots.

That draft report was ultimately rejected by the B.C. Police Commission as below standard.

But Whitelaw said it contained 100 recommendations that police should have followed, including:

  • A no-parking zone in the downtown core was not enforced, allowing frustrated fans to take out their anger onto parked vehicles.
  • The arteries to-and-from the downtown core were closed temporarily. As a result, fans were blocked off and prevented from leaving the areas around the Rogers Arena in a timely manner.
  • Fans were allowed to gather in large numbers on the streets when they should have been quickly dispersed and reminded that they need start moving out of the downtown zone.

"It was not contained quickly and then, the key problem too, it spilled over into darkness," Whitelaw said.

"The police, in many ways, as they did in '94, seemed to be standing around, not taking any pro-action."

As a result, he said the city of Vancouver suffered a "billion dollars worth of bad publicity."

Whitelaw said police may now have to rely on what investigators in 1994 called the "wall of shame" -- pictures taken by fans and police -- to catch some of Wednesday night's agitators.

"We put up photographs of all the individuals, and over a period of six or seven months, we're able to identify most of them and police laid charges.

Note: This story was edited to correct misleading information contained in an earlier version. Whitelaw was hired as a freelance writer to help draft an earlier version of the report into the 1994 riot, not the main author of the report.