Deadly Discrimination: Police-involved Deaths and Mental Health Disability in Canada

Abstract

In Canada, people who experience mental health disability are over-represented among those who die in police interactions. At present, there is sparse national data available about the nature and extent of police-involved deaths of persons who experience mental health disability. Using mixed methods including access to information requests, media analysis and thematic analysis, this study analyzes data from coroner and medical examiner reports produced from 2004 to 2014, including descriptions of 433 police-involved deaths in Canada to explore the over-representation of people who experience mental health disability. Secondly, it provides a review of contemporary case law on legal liability and accountability of police, comparing traditional tort law and criminal prosecution approaches with the potential for discrimination claims on the ground of disability. This review focuses on police use of force and considers the benefits and drawbacks to tort, criminal and human rights law as means of legal accountability for police-involved injuries and deaths of persons who experience mental health disability. Employing a typology of police-involved deaths, it is demonstrated that persons who are perceived to experience mental health impairment are over-represented among several types of police-involved deaths subject to coroner or medical examiner proceedings. Further, it is suggested that recommendations stemming from coroner and medical examiner reports offer few helpful suggestions for meaningful reform to prevent such deaths. Lastly, it is suggested that discrimination claims are unlikely to prove more successful than tort claims or criminal prosecution as a means of sparking police reform. However, recognition of the potential for systemic discrimination by police should cause governments to re-evaluate police practices and societal strategies to address mental health crises.