Ex-judge to decide if Vancouver constables must apologize in person to Heiltsuk pair

Maxwell Johnson answers questions during a press conference in Bella Bella, B.C., on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. (Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press)

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner has appointed a retired judge to determine if two officers who wrongfully handcuffed an Indigenous man and his granddaughter outside a Vancouver bank in 2019 should be required to provide an oral apology “consistent with Indigenous law.”

Maxwell Johnson of the Heiltsuk Nation and his then-12-year-old granddaughter were detained by the officers when they tried to open an account at the Bank of Montreal using their Indigenous status cards.

The agency says in a news release that a discipline proceeding found Vancouver police constables Canon Wong and Mitchel Tong committed misconduct and that they were ordered by a retired judge in March 2022 to provide oral apologies.

It says the officers provided written apologies but have not yet agreed to apologize “the way requested by the applicants.”

Commissioner Prabhu Rajan has now appointed retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Wally Oppal as adjudicator for a full review of the evidence, which may result in an order for the constables to attend a Heiltsuk trauma-healing ceremony.

Marilyn Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, says in a separate news release the decision is the “first step on what will hopefully be a pathway to healing.”

“A culturally appropriate washing ceremony and apology, in person, is the proper requirement to help heal everyone impacted by this incident, including the constables themselves,” Slett says.

“Max and his family look forward to being fully heard through this review process, and to ensuring Heiltsuk law and culture are respected.”

The release from the nation says a similar ceremony was attended by representatives from BMO in 2020 in the Heiltsuk home community of Bella Bella, on B.C.’s remote central coast.

Slett has previously said that Wong and Tong backed out of a scheduled washing ceremony in Bella Bella in 2022, which has “prevented healing and closure from the incident.”

Their non-attendance resulted in tense moments at the ceremony, when Heiltsuk Hereditary Chief Frank Brown returned a gift he had received from Adam Palmer, then Vancouver’s police chief.

A statement from the president of the Vancouver Police Union at the time said Wong and Tong were not able to attend “for personal reasons.”

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner says the appointment of an adjudicator comes after new evidence was submitted by the applicants that explains the importance of an “apology ceremony under Heiltsuk law,” citing the “ongoing harm caused to the applicants because of the lack of a culturally appropriate apology.”

Rajan says the discipline authority’s apology letter was “well intentioned in seeking to improve the relationship between the applicants and the police.”

“However, (it) failed efforts between the officers and the applicants to agree on how the apology should be made appears to have worsened the relationship between the parties,” Rajan says.

“A review on the record will provide an opportunity for an adjudicator to determine, with the benefit of the new evidence and in the context of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, whether the officers should be required to provide oral apologies to the applicants, and if so, on what terms.”

That review has yet to be scheduled.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2026.