Capital Daily for Monday, July 13

The Cowichan Valley Regional District had its eye on Koksilah Elementary, a school that closed in 2013. It wanted the Boal Road site for an emergency shelter or supportive housing. Then it learned the property had gone up for public sale, and the Cowichan Valley School District accepted an offer from a private buyer whose name isn't being disclosed.

The district listed the property in May for $3.15 million. Board chair Cathy Schmidt says the sale helps cover roughly $100 million in deferred maintenance across about 20 school sites. She also says the CVRD never filed a formal interest in the property during her three and a half years as chair.

CVRD chair Kate Segall tells it differently. She points to a paper trail stretching back to 2022 and says the school district declined a meeting when the sale went public. The regional district submitted a competitive offer through the process anyway, at the end of May.

On June 26 the CVRD sent an open letter to Premier David Eby asking for a review. The province confirmed it's now looking at how the sale unfolded. If nothing changes, Segall says the district is prepared to seek a legal review.

Nearly half of the 83 active files at the BC First Nations Justice Council's Police Accountability Unit involve use of force. Eight involve illegal arrest and detention. Six involve wellness checks — the same kind of call that brought an Edmundston officer to Chantel Moore's door in June 2020, where the 26-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht woman was shot and killed.

Her mother, Martha Martin, watched the launch of the unit with mixed feelings. Five months after Chantel died, Martin's son Mike died in custody at the Surrey Pretrial Centre. What she remembers most is the silence afterward. "The hardest thing for me has been the waiting: waiting to have answers, waiting for the coroner," she said. "To not have those answers just makes time drag."

The unit, first piloted in 2024, now offers Indigenous people in BC free legal help after police violence, misconduct, or negligence. On the Island alone, the cases pile up: Julian Jones, 28, shot by RCMP in Opitsaht in 2021; Jared Lowndes, 38, shot in a Campbell River Tim Hortons parking lot five months later. In Lowndes' case, the police watchdog found grounds to consider charges. The BC Prosecution Service declined.

Managing lawyer Alexander Kirby expects the caseload to grow. He couldn't name another nonprofit doing this work, partly because, he said, it doesn't pay well enough to attract private lawyers.