A former Iraqi refugee who tried to hang himself in the Burnaby RCMP cells just three months earlier was among the hundreds of Middle Eastern men apparently caught up in a DNA sweep by police investigating the murder of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen.
The incident is a “casebook example of everything that could possibly go wrong” with the investigative technique, according to B.C. Civil Liberties Association policy director Michael Vonn.
‘Retraumatized’
Emotions Paradise Universe (formerly Osama al Salami), who came to Canada in 2008 as a refugee from the Iraq War, said the ordeal has “retraumatized” him.
Before fleeing Iraq, the former periodontist’s family had been killed and he himself tortured, both during dictator Saddam Hussein’s reign and during the civil war that followed his fall, Universe told the NOW.
“My history with police in Iraq during and after Saddam Hussein regime was horrific and terrible; no one could imagined it,” he said.
So, when two plainclothes IHIT officers knocked on his apartment door unexpectedly on Oct. 31, 2017 and began questioning him about Shen’s murder, he said he was terrified, especially since they gave him no explanation for why he was being targeted.
As with other Middle Eastern men interviewed by the NOW about the sweep, the officers flashed a photo of Shen at Universe near the beginning of the interview.
At the end, they asked him to provide a voluntary DNA sample and asked to take his photo.
Unlike other men interviewed by the NOW, Universe refused.
“I became upset because there is no reasonable reason to give my photograph and DNA sample,” he said. “I directed them to the elevator. They left.”
Living in fear
After that, Universe said IHIT investigators visited his apartment at least two more times, once questioning his building manager about him and, on another occasion, sliding a business card under his door.
Not knowing of any other explanation for why he was being tied to Shen’s death, Universe concluded the RCMP were trying to frame him for murder because of an altercation he had had three months earlier with a paramedic who has two brothers on the force.
Universe had accused the paramedic, Casey Forslund, of assaulting him in the emergency room at Burnaby Hospital on July 7, 2017, but it was Universe who was arrested after that incident and charged with uttering threats against Forslund and an ER nurse.
Those charges were stayed a few months later.
While he was in the Burnaby RCMP cells, however, Universe tried to hang himself, and Forslund was one of the paramedics who attended and helped bring him to Royal Columbian Hospital to have him committed under the Mental Health Act, according to an affidavit sworn by Forslund in a related lawsuit.
In the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and within earshot of Universe, Forslund said he may have told the accompanying RCMP officers that he had two brothers on the force.
Three months later, when IHIT investigators came to question Universe about Shen’s death, he thought one of the officers looked just like Forslund, he said.
(Forslund’s brothers are, in fact, stationed at Vancouver Island detachments, according to Forslund’s affidavit.)
Universe said he lived in fear for nearly a year, thinking the police were trying to frame him, until last September when Ibrahim Ali, a Syrian refugee, was arrested and charged with Shen’s murder.
“They tremendously retraumatized me,” Universe said. “I lost my sleep and appetite. They caused to me immense deep pain and suffering.”
DNA sweep
From news reports, he then found out hundreds of Lower Mainland men from the Middle East appeared to have been asked for DNA samples out of the blue in relation to the murder case.
Universe believes the wide-ranging sweep amounts to racial profiling and violates his charter rights.
He said there was nothing, except his ethnic origin, that could have caused police to ask for his DNA, since he didn’t know Shen, had never been to Central Park and didn’t live in the neighbourhood.
He also doesn’t believe there’s any guarantee the RCMP would have destroyed his DNA once Shen’s case is finally closed.
“I personally believe that there is no one single useful and practical tool able to confirm for public that their voluntary DNA sample was destroyed after the completion of the RCMP-IHIT investigation,” he said.
Building trust
The reaction of those caught up in the sweep speaks volumes about how credible the RCMP’s program for the collection of voluntary DNA samples is, according to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
“If what we’re hearing back in relation to this scenario and others is that people are very angry, people are very suspicious, people feel that they were duped, all of those things just hack away at the credibility of the program,” Vonn said.
One step that would go a long way, she said, would be for the RCMP to issue paperwork to people who have given DNA or other biometric information during an investigation, verifying both the physical samples and any associated computer data have been destroyed.
“If you have a program for biometrics and your promise is that they will be destroyed, then make your promise something you can take to the bank,” Vonn said. “Prove it; give me a notarized document that says this was done.”
She doesn’t understand why the RCMP hasn’t taken this step, she said, since it would only help their program by building trust.
In the DNA sweep for the Shen investigation, the number of refugees and former refugees who appear to have been targeted is another cause for concern, according to Vonn.
“What’s the surmise here?” she said. “That the CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) or some other government body who would have access to this information is providing lists to the RCMP – because there are no lists of individuals of this kind of background.”
Another reason for concern, according to Vonn, is that many refugees, like Universe, experience trauma in their home countries, including at the hands of police.
“Whenever the police are asking for consent, it is always fraught,” she said. “In this scenario, where we have the potential for mental health concerns, potential for language concerns, previous trauma in relation to these kinds of officials, it’s compounded through the roof.”
IHIT
IHIT, saying the case is now before the courts, would not comment on the Marrisa Shen investigation or confirm whether or not a DNA sweep had been conducted.
Generally speaking, however, spokesperson Cpl. Frank Jang said IHIT “strictly adheres to Canadian law and RCMP policy with respect to the handling of DNA exhibits.”
“I can also tell you, generally speaking, in situations where bodily substances are provided with consent by a person pursuant to a criminal investigation, the consenter is explicitly informed of his/her legal right not to participate, the reason for why his/her DNA is being requested and that his/her bodily substances will be destroyed once determination is made that it is not a match with the comparable known profile,” Jang wrote in an emailed statement.
Jang added the entire process is audio-recorded.
He did not answer follow-up questions about whether IHIT informs people they are part of a group being targeted in a DNA sweep or whether the RCMP issues any written guarantee that their DNA and all related computer data has been destroyed once the case is over.
Jang also declined to comment on what, if anything, the RCMP does to ensure people like Universe aren’t retraumatized by the experienced.
NOTE: This article has been changed. The original stated IHIT had not responded to media requests. Comments subsequently received from IHIT have been added.
