B.C. NDP's call for an inquest in Tori Dunn murder aims at defusing controversy

Comments by Premier David Eby on seeking changes to publications ban reveals an ignorance of criminal law

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Published Sep 09, 2024  •  4 minute read

Surrey resident and businesswoman Tori Dunn was killed in a violent home invasion on Sunday, June 16, 2024. Photo by Aron Dunn /Facebook

VICTORIA — The New Democrats have tried to defuse another public safety controversy by ordering a coroner’s inquest into the killing of Tori Dunn, the 30-year-old woman attacked in her Port Kells home in June.

“This morning, I directed a coroner’s inquest into this case,” Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said in a statement late Friday afternoon. “The people of B.C. need answers, and I am committed to doing everything I can to provide them.”

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British Columbians won’t get answers for some time. The coroner can’t begin work until court proceedings involving the person accused of the killing are completed.

Farnworth denied that the government was trying to back burner the case until after the Oct. 19 election.

“This is not about the election,” he told Sarah MacDonald of Global TV. “This is about a terrible tragedy. The family want to have answers and they want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

The resort to a coroner’s inquest is also intended sideline further questions to Premier David Eby about his repeated vows to “get to the bottom” of what happened on behalf of the Dunn family.

When it first came out that the accused was out on bail at the time of the attack on Dunn, Eby exploded with indignation — not once but several times.

“Here’s a situation where someone was arrested for a crime, charges were approved by Crown counsel, went to court and that individual was seeking to be released back into the community while he waited for trial,” said the premier in his thumbnail sketch of what happened.

“The Crown (prosecutor) said, judge, ‘please don’t release this person back into the community.’ And the judge made the decision to release this person back in the community where he’s alleged to have committed another horrific crime,” Eby continued.

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“We’re going to get to the bottom of how it could be that this keeps happening in our communities, even when Crown is seeking the detention of the individual, even when we’ve asked the federal government to change the federal bail rules — and they have. It’s unacceptable and beyond unacceptable.

“It makes people feel that they shouldn’t have confidence in our justice system, that the justice system is not keeping people safe.”

Later, Eby met with members of the Dunn family and came away saying they were looking for answers and so was he.

“What happened in the courtroom and why was this individual released? It’s not just a question that the Dunn family has. That’s a question that every British Columbian has — that I have.”

Eby was constrained from revealing details of what happened in the bail hearing.

“There is a publication ban that the court has put in place that seems to — we understand — cover that bail hearing — which is preventing the public from knowing what happened in that courtroom.”

The best the government could offer the Dunn family was to come to B.C. listen to a recording of the bail hearing, available through the court itself.

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“I mean they live all across Canada,” Eby fumed. “It makes no sense.”

So, he, Eby was taking charge.

“I’ve talked to the attorney general’s team. The prosecution service will be going to court to get clarification from the court about ensuring that the publication ban does not apply to the bail hearing, so that we can know what happened in that courtroom.”

He fully expected that the prosecutors would be successful.

“There is absolutely no reason why that information should be confidential,” declared Eby, full of his usual confidence.

“Every British Columbian deserves to know what happened. Were the rules followed, where did things break down?”

The previous comments are from the premier’s news conferences in June and July. Last week, I asked the premier’s office for an update on what became of Eby’s vow to “get to the bottom” of what happened with the bail hearing.

Initially, I was fobbed off with a statement from the prosecution service. Later, the premier’s office provided background on the complicated train of events in the case, but no specific responses about Eby’s actions and comments.

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The statement Monday from the prosecution service said that a publication ban regarding the bail hearing is mandatory under the Criminal Code. It’s put there to “protect the integrity of the trial process,” especially in a case where the accused is charged with murder.

You’d think the premier, a lawyer, former attorney general and adjunct professor of law, would have known all that. Or he could have asked one of the platoon of lawyers in his office.

Perhaps Eby was so busy with election-year grandstanding that he assumed no one would notice how he really didn’t know what he was talking about.

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