Police Watchdog Clears Officers in Death of Vulnerable Man — And This Is Why the System Is Broken

 

Police Watchdog Clears Officers in Death of Vulnerable Man — And This Is Why the System Is Broken

By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
December 2025

Another man has died in the Downtown Eastside — unarmed, naked, vulnerable, already pepper-sprayed — and once again, the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) has cleared the officers involved.

And once again, the public is left asking:
How does someone in crisis end up dead after a police encounter… and no one is held responsible?

This isn’t “anti-police.”
This is about basic human dignity and a system that refuses to take responsibility when something goes horribly wrong.

This was someone’s son, brother, father — a human being in distress. And instead of help, he ended up another heartbreaking headline followed by the same four words we hear far too often:

“No wrongdoing was found.”

A Naked Man Is Not a Threat — He Is a Person in Crisis

When someone is naked in public, it is almost always a sign of:

• mental health crisis
• overdose
• extreme fear
• medical distress

In other words, this person needed care, not force.

Pepper spray alone incapacitates anyone. It causes choking, panic, blindness, and confusion. After being sprayed, a person is essentially defenseless. So how does someone in that state end up dead — and the report still finds officers acted “reasonably”?

The Watchdog System Is Not Truly Independent

The IIO is supposed to investigate police-involved deaths, but the pattern is painfully clear:
case after case ends with no accountability.

It’s still the same structure:
police actions being judged by a system built around police culture, police procedures, and police narratives.

No matter how many times we hear “independent,” the results speak for themselves.

And this raises the most important point:

Police cannot truly investigate themselves — not directly, not indirectly, not through agencies intertwined with their systems and assumptions.

We need something far stronger.

We Need Outside Accountability — Not Internal Recycling

For cases like this — where a vulnerable person dies and the public is expected to simply trust the findings — Canada needs an external, international level of oversight.

Other countries use:

• civilian-led panels with real power
• international human rights observers
• external forensic review teams

Why don’t we?

Why are we still using a model where the watchdog is structurally linked to the very institutions it is supposed to hold accountable?

If an officer from another country killed a naked, pepper-sprayed man in custody, you can bet international agencies would demand answers.

Why should Canadians expect anything less?

This Is Bigger Than One Case

It is about how we treat people in crisis.

It is about how many families are left without answers.

It is about a system that consistently says:

“Nothing to see here.”

And if this was your dad… your brother… your son…

Would you trust that outcome?
Would you trust a system that polices itself?

We Need a Real Solution

This tragedy highlights what so many communities have been demanding for years:

• civilian-only, non-police mental-health crisis teams
• medical-first responders
• trauma-informed specialists
• mandatory external oversight from outside the police structure
• and yes, even international human-rights review panels for cases where a death occurs in custody

Because if a naked, unarmed, pepper-sprayed man can die and the system still says “no wrongdoing,” then the system is not broken — it is working exactly as it was designed.

And that is the real problem.