VANCOUVER — The Law Society of British Columbia has confirmed it is investigating Brad Hickford, counsel for a public hearing into the death of Myles Gray, over concerns about an obscenity resulting in the adjournment of the long-awaited proceeding this week.
The vulgar remark was broadcast on Wednesday over the audio stream of the hearing into Gray’s death in 2015 after a beating by seven Vancouver police officers.
Hickford, appointed by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, says he’s not in a position to comment and referred questions to his own lawyer, Richard Neary, who says his client denies making the remark.
The remark caught on a microphone describes someone as “stupid,” followed by an extreme vulgarity sometimes used to describe women.
The society had told The Canadian Press the incident involved Hickford, but later clarified it had not meant to confirm his identity as the speaker of the obscenity, but instead that he was being investigated over the remark.
The Gray hearing that opened Monday and had been scheduled to last up to 10 weeks was adjourned midway through Wednesday’s testimony after the remark.
The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner had urged caution Thursday against trying to figure out the source and the target of the comment.
Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press
