An RCMP officer charged with assault with a weapon, assault, and obstruction of justice over the arrest of an Indigenous man in Prince George in 2016 has been found not guilty on all counts. 

Const. Joshua Grafton, an RCMP dog handler, was criminally charged four years after a back-alley takedown of two truck thieves was captured by a backyard security camera. 

Grafton was charged with assaulting a man with a police dog and obstructing justice by allegedly making false entries in his dog handler’s report. 

But provincial court Judge P. McDermick ruled Grafton’s actions were “proportionate, necessary, and reasonable” given the “high-risk” situation. 

The lawyer for a B.C. RCMP officer acquitted of assault and obstruction of justice this week is slamming the justice system for the length of time it took for the case to conclude.

Const. Joshua Grafton was one of three officers charged in relation to an arrest in Prince George captured on camera in 2016, involving two suspects in a vehicle theft.

Charges against the other two officers were stayed in 2021.

Staffing shortages in the B.C. Sheriff Service are nothing new, but the ongoing problem has once again led to courtroom closures.

A shortage of available sheriffs recently forced the closure of five courtrooms for a day at the Surrey Provincial Court, and the Abbotsford Law Courts were forced to close three courtrooms on Friday, Monday and Tuesday for the same reason.

The challenges the sheriff’s service are facing were highlighted in a recent recruitment and retention report commissioned by the provincial government from consultants Business Research and Diagnostics.

By the time Kyle Bienvenu graduated high school in Victoria, B.C., he knew exactly what he wanted to do next because it had always been part of him. He wanted to be an artist.

“I love performing, I love being in front of people,” the professionally trained dancer explains. “I love the work it takes to get to that point.”

Today, as a partner at Hira Rowan LLP in Vancouver and as this year’s winner of the CBA’s Douglas Miller Rising Star Award, he uses those same words to describe the feeling he gets practising as a litigator in commercial and construction law.