Three years after he was fatally shot by police in Port Hardy, the family of 24-year-old James Hayward will unveil a memorial bench across from where he was killed.
It’s at the intersection of Granville Street and Highway 19, a spot that has caused them much pain since he was shot on July 8, 2015. They want his name to be known, and for what happened to him to be not forgotten.
His aunt, Nora Hayward, said the family can sympathize with the family of the man shot by police outside the Departure Bay ferry terminal in Nanaimo on May 8. Nora criticized the fact that neither the police nor the Independent Investigations Office has released the name or age of the man killed that day.
“That is unbelievable,” Nora Hayward said. “We need to humanize these people.”
The narrative that emerged after James was shot was that he was armed with a knife, which police repeatedly told him to drop. A report by B.C.’s Independent Investigations Office, which probes police-involved deaths and serious injuries, ruled out criminal charges against the RCMP officer, saying James ran at him with a knife in his hand before he was shot five times.
Nora said her nephew was more than his criminal record and his stints in jail. He was a loving son and brother who desperately wanted to overcome his addiction and get medical help for his mental-health issues. “He was 25 years old. Just a young man, just coming into his own,” she said.
After his death, Nora was vocal in calling for a coroner’s inquest that she hopes will answer what the family says are unanswered questions about the shooting. A coroner’s inquest is scheduled for spring.
As the IIO investigates the police shooting at the Nanaimo ferry terminal, a big unanswered question is the identity of the man who was killed. The RCMP have said the man was wanted in connection with a carjacking in Penticton and a shooting in Vernon, and that officers tried to arrest him as he drove off the ferry.
“We need that other side,” Nora said. “That doesn’t seem right [to withhold the name].”
The RCMP, the IIO and the B.C. Coroners Service have cited privacy laws as the reason for not releasing the names of people whose deaths are being investigated.
David Fraser, a privacy lawyer with McInnes Cooper in Halifax, said RCMP detachments across Canada are increasingly refusing to release names, a practice that makes it harder to keep the police accountable for their actions.
The B.C. RCMP says it is bound by the B.C. Privacy Act and cannot release a name unless the information is already publicly available, such as when someone has been charged, when information is required to further an investigation, or when public interest clearly outweighs any invasion of privacy, for example if the public is at risk.
According to the Privacy Act, information must be disclosed if it is “in the public interest,” which leaves full discretion with the RCMP and B.C. Coroners Service to determine what meets that threshold.
“I think it’s a bit presumptuous of the police to decide what is in the public interest and also decide that the public interest only coincides with helping their investigation,” Fraser said. “I think the public interest, by default, is served by identifying murder victims and people who have died violently. And particularly when someone dies at the hands of police. … It really does seem self-serving to not provide this sort of information.”
The IIO’s chief civilian director, Ron MacDonald, told the Times Colonist that the agency has a policy not to release the identities of anyone involved in its investigations, which includes the person killed or injured, witnesses or subject officers.
This is required under B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, MacDonald said, and the policy is consistent with civilian police-oversight bodies across Canada.
“Some people would argue the public interest favours releasing the identity of an individual who is shot by police and others would argue quite the contrary, and that debate has been resolved by the passing of legislation in B.C. and all of the other provinces, that protected the privacy of individuals whose information is gathered by a government agency. Therefore, absent significant public-interest factors and where the investigation requires the release of the name, the name under the act should not be released,” MacDonald said.
Fraser said it seems contradictory that a police oversight body founded on the tenet of transparency would withhold such a key piece of information.
“I do find it interesting and somewhat odd that you have an organization that says: ‘Hey, we’re all about transparency so trust us while we’re not being transparent.’ ”
MacDonald said that even if the name is not released, detailed facts of the case are eventually made public, either through criminal charges or through the public reports filed to explain why no wrongdoing was found.
For Nora Hayward, going public with her nephew’s name and story allowed the family to receive an overwhelming amount of support from the community in Port Hardy and in Port McNeill, where the family has lived.
While the family remains critical of the RCMP and the IIO’s investigation, Nora said the family is happy that a representative from the civilian oversight body will be present at the memorial today.
One of the reasons James Hayward’s family pushed the Town of Port Hardy to refurbish the bench is to ensure he is not forgotten, his aunt said. It will be a more permanent memorial than the heart-shaped stones and occasional bouquets of flowers that sit across the street.
On the third anniversary of his death, James’s father Reggie Hayward, his sisters, his step-brother and half-brother will release balloons into the sky as they lift a white sheet to unveil the bench.
Jame’s father continues to struggle with the death of his son and harbours intense anger toward the police, Nora said. “I’m hoping this will give him, I hate the word closure, but some sort of acceptance.”
