Lloyd Gilbert sits strapped to a chair in a jail cell, a dark stain of urine slowly spreading across his jeans.
For three hours and 20 minutes, the Williams Lake man was restrained by leather straps to the chair after several warnings by RCMP officers in January.
Now the B.C. Civil Liberties Association has filed a complaint with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, alleging Gilbert was improperly monitored and was at significant risk of health complications from being restrained while intoxicated.
"I would like to think that where someone is in a position where they could aspirate on their own vomit and cause difficulty to themselves – either by choking or suffocating – that you would be checking on them much more often than twice. That’s just common sense," said BCCLA president Robert Holmes.
While surveillance video of the cell released by the BCCLA shows officers checking twice on Gilbert – the second time to release him from the chair – Mounties say Gilbert was monitored.
"All of the cells are on video monitoring," said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Rob Vermeulen, adding officers also look through the cell doors to ensure prisoners are conscious, breathing and responsive.
Vermeulen said the restraint chair is an approved device, in RCMP policy. It is only used to prevent prisoners from harming themselves, harming others, or damaging cellblock property.
In the case of Gilbert, all three situations were reasons to restrain him, Vermeulen said.
Gilbert was arrested at his home after he called officers to report a robbery. Attending officers found him highly intoxicated outside of his residence, yelling and screaming. He would not provide details to officers about why he had called police and was arrested for causing a disturbance, Vermeulen said.
Once inside his cell, Gilbert climbed atop a sink and allegedly tried to remove a ceiling vent. He was warned several times before he was restrained, Vermeulen said.
"We have issues of safety as well as issues of basic human dignity and human rights that are of a grave concern," Holmes said.
Holmes said he would like the RCMP to reconsider their restraint policy and training around it so "that we don’t see the dire outcomes that we see in some of these situations.
"There needs to be more interplay between law enforcement, social work and health care … so that we as a society can try to respond in these kind of situations that achieves the objectives while still respecting people’s rights."
Go here to see the detention video.
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