RCMP Watch

Camille Bains, Vancouver, B.C. (Canadian Press) - A Vancouver police officer told an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul that she’d picked up hundreds of drunks, but none quite as memorable as the man who crawled on his hands and knees to the elevator doors of the city drunk tank.

Const. Pam Dawes said Monday that she transported Paul on the morning of Dec. 5, 1998, after being called to the Downtown Eastside, where Paul had been loitering outside a hotel.

“It was a bit of an odd call because I remember him coming out of the wagon and crawling to the elevator doors with a bag of (potato) chips,” said Dawes.
She now works for the Vancouver police department’s scenes of crime unit.

When she pulled up to the bay of the police station, Dawes said she opened the paddy wagon doors to see Paul, 47, sitting up and munching on a sandwich.

Dawes said she helped Paul to his feet but when she wasn’t able to hold him up she guided him to a wall.

“He just sat on the ground and I knew I was going to have a hard time picking him up,” Dawes said.

“He was a big man.”

While Dawes was using an intercom to call for assistance from jail staff, she said Paul started crawling toward the elevator doors of the drunk tank.

“He was making good progress,” Dawes said, adding she carried Paul’s chips.

The inquiry was shown a video recording of Paul crawling to the elevator doors, where several people stood around as he entered the elevator.

Once upstairs, he is seen sitting in front of a desk before he lies on his back.

Two people then change his clothes and apparently drag him away.

The day next, Paul, a Mi’kmaq originally from New Brunswick, was dumped by another police officer in an alley, where he was found dead of hypothermia.

The inquiry is examining the events surrounding Paul’s death by exposure.

It’s also looking into the actions of the police department, the provincial ambulance service, the coroner’s service, the Police Complaint Commission and the Criminal Justice Branch of the Attorney General’s Ministry.

Under questioning by Steven Kelliher, a lawyer for Paul’s family, Dawes said there weren’t any wheelchairs in the paddy wagon or the bay of the jail to transport Paul to the drunk tank.

“The three options were to manually assist the individual, to have them crawl or be dragged,” Kelliher said.

“Were those the three options for entry into the jail?”

“Yes, those are the ones available,” Dawes said of the man who’d been in and out of the drunk tank over 200 times.

A paramedic has already testified that he had regular dealings with Paul and that the man had trouble with his feet and legs and was progressively becoming more disabled.

When Kelliher suggested it was demeaning for Paul to have been left to crawl, Dawes said it would have been much better if he could have walked.

“His dignity seemed to be a reasonable price to pay to get him into a jail, is that correct?”

“I have no idea,” Dawes replied.

Kelliher also questioned Dawes about the word knob written on Paul’s arrest form, suggesting the handwriting matched hers.

But Dawes insisted she didn’t write the word, which she said refers to someone who’s unco-operative.

Earlier Monday, Det. Const. Tim Houchen told the inquiry he arrested Paul outside the hotel because he was belligerent and drunk to the point that he couldn’t stand up.

Houchen said the police department radioed his partner to say the information on Paul was tagged “Caution.”

“Violent.”

Paul was deemed suitable for the city drunk tank instead of a detox centre, he said.