The family of a Nicole Chan, a police officer who took her own life more than four years ago, is crediting her with workplace changes soon to be implemented at the Vancouver Police Department.
Chan took her own life on Jan. 27, 2019, amid an investigation into complaints she had made about sexual harassment and inappropriate relationships with two senior VPD officers. A coroner’s inquest into her death has now produced recommendations that the force has committed to implementing in their entirety.
“My family and I would like to acknowledge the Vancouver Police Department for their renewed commitment to the safety of their officers,” Nicole’s sister Jenn Chan wrote in a statement to Global News.
“It is because of Nicole’s lived experience that this change will be made. We will always miss her, but we continue to find comfort in knowing that her legacy has gone beyond the call of duty, by protecting future generations of officers.”
The inquest jury produced 12 recommendations, eight of which were directed at VPD Chief Constable Adam Palmer and the force.
The first called for mandatory psychological, clinical interviews to be part of all officers’ recruitment, and the second called for mandatory, rigorous, in-person, respectful workplace training on a regular basis for officers of all ranks in the department.
Other recommendations include regular communication between a human resources or peer support case representative and any VPD employee with mental health issues and mandatory officer check-ins with a psychologist.
The report also urged the VPD to include the spreading of rumours and gossip as unprofessional behaviour in its respectful workplace policy, and to provide human resources-specific professional training for all officers working in HR.
While the VPD has committed to implementing the recommendations, Sgt. Steve Addison declined to address them Wednesday.
“Jury recommendations from the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Constable Chan will be discussed during the Vancouver Police Board meeting on April 20,” he wrote in an email.
“A report on the matter is now available online, however it would be inappropriate to comment on those recommendations prior to the police board having opportunity to discuss them.”
January’s inquest heard testimony from 30 witnesses, who said the night before Chan took her life, she had become frantic about an investigation into her complaints and threatened suicide. She was taken to hospital but released in under two hours, after the admitting doctor determined he couldn’t hold her against her own will.
The inquest also heard how Chan felt blackmailed into a sexual relationship by former Sgt. Dave Van Patten, a human resources officer and her superior, was upset she had been placed on stress leave, and felt ostracized in the department while he was allowed to keep his job.
Witnesses described how Chan faced deepening mental health issues after filing her complaints, and that she worried a “rumour mill” in the department would destroy her career.
Arthur Schafer, director of the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, expressed frustration with the recommendations produced by the inquest, which he described as “irrelevant to the real problems” faced by the VPD.
“In my view, the underlying problem is a toxic workplace and sexual harassment. None of the recommendations is really about that fact,” he told Global News.
“The solution proposed in these recommendations … is to screen potential employees of the Vancouver Police Department to weed out those who might be psychologically vulnerable, and then to provide extra mental health-care supports for those who may be severely distressed by the harassment and assault they face in the workplace.”
Hiring workers with a “high tolerance” for sexual assault is not a solution, he added. Rather, perpetrators should be dealt with firmly, he suggested.
“The failure of the Vancouver Police Department will not be rectified by spending another $300,000 to $400,000 a year giving psychological tests to people before they hire them and then annually after they’re hired. In effect, what they’re doing is blaming Nicole Chan.”
The VPD estimates implementing the jury’s recommendations will cost $500,000.
— with files from Catherine Urquhart