VANCOUVER -- Nine years ago Frank Paul, 45, an aboriginal man and a chronic alcoholic, died drunk, cold and alone in an Downtown Eastside alley where he had been dumped by the driver of a police wagon.
He died of hypothermia, freezing to death behind a detox centre in soaking wet clothes.
On Tuesday a full scale public inquiry into Mr. Paul's death began after years of lobbying by aboriginal groups and others in the Downtown Eastside.
Headed by former B.C. Supreme Court justice William Davies, the inquiry will examine all of the government agencies responsible for what happened to Mr. Paul the night he died and those who subsequently decided not to hold any sort of inquiry into his death.
The underlying themes will be whether ingrained racism played a role in what happened to Mr. Paul and the right of the police to investigate themselves when someone dies in custody.
Aboriginal observers say the results of the inquiry will have profound implications for aboriginals across the country who they say suffer from racism in their dealing with police and other government agencies.
The Paul family were originally told that Mr. Paul had died as the result of a hit and run.
A phone call from the former counsel to the B.C. Police Complaint Commission, Dana Urban, two years later alerted them to what had actually happened.
Paul's cousin Peggy Clement told the inquiry Ms. Urban said Mr. Paul had been dumped in the alley "like the garbage binbeing put out for the night."
When the family recovered his body for burial they also received a black garbage binbag containing Mr. Paul's clothes.
"And they were still wet," Ms. Clement said, weeping.
