Murray Wood: Of Easter bunny bells and Juicy Fruit gum
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VANCOUVER — A public hearing into the police-involved death of Myles Gray resumed in Vancouver, after a four-week adjournment triggered by an obscene remark and the subsequent resignation of counsel for the proceeding.
The delay allowed replacement counsel, Brock Martland, to get up to speed on the case by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner of B.C. involving seven Vancouver officers who deny misconduct in Gray’s 2015 beating death.
Martland started the hearing offering his condolences to Gray’s family for the “profound loss they’ve suffered.”
He told the hearing that the various sides have been able to agree on some facts, including details of photos and fingerprints collected, so some witnesses won’t need to be called.
“As the new public hearing counsel, we’ve done our best to sprint and catch up to the runners on the track ahead of us. We’ve tried to achieve efficiencies where we can do that, but without impairing the quality of the evidence or fairness for the participants,” Martland said of himself and a second lawyer now involved.
Former hearing counsel Brad Hickford resigned last month over a remark picked up by a microphone in the hearing room, describing someone as “stupid” and using an obscenity.
The case is expected to continue through to March 13 and dates have been set aside in April and May for lawyers for the officers involved to respond.
Gray’s family had sought the hearing after a discipline authority cleared the seven officers of misconduct in 2024.
A coroner’s jury concluded in 2023 that Gray’s death was a homicide after hearing that he died shortly after a beating by several officers, leaving him with injuries including a fractured eye socket, a crushed voice box and ruptured testicles.
Coroner’s juries do not find criminal fault and a finding of homicide means death due to injury intentionally inflicted by another person.
Hickford is under investigation by the Law Society of B.C. over the remark in the hearing room on Jan. 21.
His own lawyer, Richard Neary, initially said Hickford denied making the remark, but later said that while his client could not recall making it, and that it was possible he had done so unintentionally.
Hickford said in a statement that he was “bewildered and troubled” by the recording of the obscenity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2026.
The Canadian Press
