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On
a rainy night in the winter of 1998, Frank Paul died of hypothermia.
His body was found in a back alley. The same spot where police had
dumped him, drunk and unconscious, six hours earlier.
He’d been in and out of jail already that day, for public
drunkenness. Frank was a Mi’kMaq from New Brunswick. When
the police contacted his family about his death, they said he’d
been the victim of a hit-and-run by a taxi. Then later the police
simply told the family he’d died of hypothermia. No other
details were provided.
Vancouver Police eventually suspended one officer for two days,
another for one day. But there was never a full examination of why
the officers involved took the action they did.
All along there was a jailhouse videotape of the events of the day
that Frank Paul died. It showed him earlier in the day, and again
later on, as he was dragged in and out of the jail. He was so wet
that his unconscious body left a trail on the floor like a janitor’s
mop.
We knew the video existed from reading about it in testimony before
a committee of the BC Legislature. The committee had been looking
into complaints about the ability of the then BC Police Complaint
Commissioner to do his job properly.
But this videotape had never been released.
The Investigation
B.C. News filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the videotape,
from both the Vancouver Police Department and the Office of the
Police Complaint Commissioner. Eventually, after continued follow-up,
and through complex negotiations with counsel to the family, the
video was released for an exclusive broadcast. The family had chosen
the CBC because of its persistent commitment and coverage of the
story, the lengths it had gone to find far-flung family members,
then put them together and in touch with counsel in Victoria. The
family members also appreciated the respect the CBC showed them.
The first time the video was ever publicly shown was on June 26,
2003. It aired on CBC Television’s Canada Now, Newsworld and
The National.
The Outcome
That same day, the Police Complaint Commissioner announced he would
re-open the Frank Paul case.
CBC News showed the tape to the Paul family members in Big Cove,
New Brunswick. It was the first time they had ever seen the tape.
The family was grateful that the CBC had put so much pressure on
the authorities to get the video released, and that we had taken
the trouble to so promptly travel the long distance to their remote
community to furnish them with a copy of the tape.
After our story aired, other media outlets quickly did follow-ups,
and aired the video as well.
It was because of the CBC’s dogged pursuit of this story that
the videotape, and the true facts, came to the light of public scrutiny.
On January 20, 2004, the BC Police Complaint Commissioner recommended
to the BC Attorney General that a full public inquiry be held into
the Paul case. In his reasons he referred to the media coverage,
and actually quoted what family members had said on CBC. His brother
had told us in one story that “a dog would get better treatment
than he got” and also his cousin had told us “I hope
with all my heart that someone will be able to do something about
it, look into it anyway, what really happened.”
Tips for journalists
1. Persist. That's the main thing. Persist.
2. Where possible, have personal meetings with the people who are
key to bringing the story to air.
3. Believe in the significance of what you are pursuing. After a
while sometimes, one gets inured to the story, and one starts to
question one's own judgment ("Is this really as important as
I first thought it was?"). Assume your instincts were right
the first time.
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