During the Bear Lake School Board meeting on November 15, under the agenda heading “What’s Right,” board members were shown a short video clip by principal Laurel Jensen. The video
He was, police have now admitted, physically abused by officers once inside the Prince George detachment. That abuse, the RCMP now acknowledges, went unaddressed due to problems with internal investigations and co-operation with external investigations over the years.
However, none of the reports into the incident - the most recent being last week s Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP probe of the incident - ties Willey s death to the conduct of police.
The civil law suit now underway by the Willey family seeks to connect the two.
The RCMP s legal position denies all of the allegations suggesting Willey s death was: a result of their use of conducted energy weapons (CEWs or Tasers) on him; the pulling and dragging of his restrained body through parts of the detachment, including a fall out of the arrest vehicle; the use of a hog-tie leg restraint device; or any other action on their part.