Family of Myles Gray shouldn’t have to ‘rely on charity,’ lawyer says before hearing

The long-awaited public inquiry into the actions of the Vancouver police officers involved in the beating death of Myles Gray is beginning Monday.

As a public inquiry into the beating death of 33-year-old Myles Gray at the hands of Vancouver Police Department officers more than a decade ago is set to begin Monday, the lawyer representing the man’s family says his loved ones shouldn’t have to rely on pro-bono counsel.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner says the public hearing will be “one of the largest” in terms of legal counsel involved, with seven officers involved in the August 2015 death as defendants.

“This is an expensive endeavor for the public,” Ian Donaldson, the Gray family’s lawyer, told CTV News on Sunday.

“The public has a right, I think, to know the police officers who are respondents in this hearing have a right to be represented by counsel, have a fair hearing,” he said, adding the OPCC and the VPD will also have lawyers representing them, in addition to the public hearing counsel, all being publicly funded.

“The one person in the system who doesn’t have an entitlement to anything is Margie Gray, the mother of Myles. The Gray family has no public support,” Donaldson said. “The only one who has to rely on charity is the deceased’s family.”

He called that an “unfortunate” gap in the system, and said the Grays and families like them should be entitled to legal representation in the same way.

“You can imagine, if this were your late child, how much this would be completely out of your wheelhouse. You couldn’t show up and make submissions and argue issues of law and do all these things,” Donaldson said.

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The lawyer commended the decision to hold a public hearing, but lamented how long it took to get to this stage.

“It’s been 10 years, almost 10-and-a-half years, so that’s a problem,” he said.

Since Gray died in a Burnaby backyard following a violent confrontation with police, during which he was struck repeatedly and sustained extensive injuries, the case has gone through several investigations.

In 2020, B.C.’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, forwarded a file to Crown for consideration of charges of manslaughter, assault and assault causing bodily harm against the officers, but the B.C. Prosecution Service chose not to pursue the charges, in part because the only witnesses present were the officers themselves.

In 2023, a coroner’s inquest into Gray’s death found he died by homicide, although coroner Larry Marzinzik told the jury that the term is neutral and does not imply fault or blame.

An external disciplinary process led by Delta police Chief Neil Dubord in October 2024 found the officers did not commit misconduct leading up to Gray’s death.

B.C.’s Police Complaint Commissioner, Prabhu Rajan, acknowledged the length of time the proceedings have gone on has had a “significant toll” on Gray’s family and the respondent officers, but determined a hearing was necessary to finally allow the testing of all evidence and to “fully understand what occurred that tragic day.”

“Ordering the public hearing (was) the right thing to do, in my respectful view,” Donaldson said. “The respondents may not like that, and the VPD, I’m told, has said something about how all this has gone on too long, and they’ve been traumatized, and my answer to that would be, well, it could have been avoided, right? Nobody wants to be here, and Margie Gray lost her son.”

Retired B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Arnold-Bailey has been appointed to adjudicate the hearing, and will decide whether any of the officers committed misconduct under the Police Act, namely intentionally or recklessly using unnecessary force, or failing to make and preserve notes. She will also decide what the consequences will be.

Margaret Gray, witness police officers who attended the scene, paramedics, a pathologist, and representatives from the Vancouver Police Union are expected to speak at the hearing. The defendant police officers may or may not testify.

READ MORE:

• ‘Where’s the accountability?’: Myles Gray’s sister slams process after officers cleared in his death
• Police probe clears seven Vancouver officers in beating death of Myles Gray
• Myles Gray died by homicide, B.C. coroner’s inquest finds

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ben Miljure and The Canadian Press