B.C. woman loses legal funding fight for families at coroner's inquests

Julie Berg, who's been tenacious in her fight to find answers into the death of her brother Jeff Berg, said Thursday she is disappointed by the high court's decision.

Berg died six years ago, two days after being arrested by a Vancouver police officer who was attending what was believed to be a home invasion robbery.

Witnesses said the officer kicked Berg while the man was handcuffed and on the ground in a back alley.

A police complaints commission later decided the officer, Const. David Bruce-Thomas, did not use excessive force during the arrest.

A coroner's inquest ruled the death a homicide, which is a neutral term meaning death was caused by the actions of another person with no blame attached.

It was that inquest that set off Julie Berg's legal odyssey all the way to the Supreme Court.

"It was an absolute exhausting and adversarial process," she said of attending the inquest without a lawyer.

Berg said there were lawyers for the police, the city and even the coroner's lawyer to represent her brother, but nothing was done for the family.

"You are just shut down at every angle and all the family is looking for are answers."

Her lawyer Cameron Ward said Berg went to both the B.C. Supreme and Appeal courts on a matter of principle.

"She was hoping that other families who go through the traumatic circumstances of having a death in the family and a coroner's inquest into that death would be able to get some legal aid funding."

Ward estimates he volunteered tens of thousands of dollars worth of his time to the Berg case.

"These days coroner's inquests are becoming more and more complicated," he said. "The other participants all have publicly funded lawyers there representing their interests."

While she doesn't advocate the idea of legal funding for every inquest, Berg believes legal help is important when the police are involved.

"When it's an in-custody death, or when it's involving police, it is a completely different process than someone who's died from. . .an accident," Berg said.

Now that she lost through the courts, Berg hopes provincial politicians will debate the idea of helping families through inquests.

Berg is also awaiting another question before the Supreme Court of Canada around legal standing for family members involved in police complaint public hearings.

She said she's fought this long and hard, not only for her brother, but for other families who may have to go through a similar experience.

"Maybe it's also my way of healing," she said.

The Canadian Press, 2006