Lillooet Speed was just 14 when his father died in police custody in Prince George.
She said she remembered being woken up at 3am one evening in July 2017 to hear the news – her father had been arrested by a group of RCMP officers, he had been pepper sprayed and he was dead in the street.
Dale Culver was 35 years old, a member of the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en nations, and a father of three children.
RCMP said they arrested him on the night of July 18, 2017 after finding him riding his bike in a neighborhood where someone reported a man may be checking people’s cars. RCMP say they chased Culver and an interaction involving pepper spray occurred.
How this led to her losing her father baffles Speed.
“I was scared, angry and confused about how the people who are supposed to help and guide and keep people safe could take their lives just so quickly,” Speed said, speaking alongside other family members and the British Columbia Regional Assembly of First Nations. Chef Terry Teegee on Monday, March 13.
The group gathered in Prince George this week for what was supposed to be the start of a long-awaited criminal trial against the Mounted Police involved in Culver’s death.
Constables Paul Ste-Marie and Jean François Monette are charged with manslaughter, while Constables Arthur Dalman and Clarence (Alex) Alexander MacDonald and Sgt. Bayani (Jon) Eusebio Cruz is charged with obstruction of justice.
They were due to appear in court for the first time on Tuesday, but on Saturday evening Culver’s family was notified that the process had been postponed until May 2.
The change is just one more painful setback for the family in five and a half harrowing years of seeking justice. They say they had to work tirelessly so that Culver’s death would not be forgotten.
“If we had let this slide pass, this case would never have been known. It would have just been swept under the rug as another Native left,” Culver’s cousin Debbie Pierre said.
The family is pushing not only for justice for Culver, but also for greater systemic change.
“I refuse to let my father’s death be forgotten without some kind of change,” Speed said. “It was a person, it wasn’t an object or a piece of paper. He was a person who, just like you or me, deserved to live.
She wants each of the gendarmes accused of her father’s death to take responsibility and apologize.
Pierre wants action taken on the many provincial and national inquiries and recommendations that have been issued over the years with few responses.
“I honestly believe that if they had been taken seriously, Dale would be here. »
BCAFN Regional Chief Terry Teegee said British Columbia needs to move faster to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In particular, he said, the province must grant First Nations greater sovereignty over policing and justice.
The family said there is no excuse for what happened to Culver.
“Nobody deserves to die at the hands of the RCMP, and nobody deserves to die alone,” Speed said.
Despite the postponed court date, they plan to gather outside the Prince George courthouse on Tuesday.
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