Whistler police chose not to attend a reported house party last weekend over concern for officers’ potential exposure to COVID-19.
The 30-plus-person indoor gathering at a Vale Inn townhome was initially reported to police at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, April 17.
“The Whistler RCMP has and will be responding to all calls for service including COVID-related calls but their response will be primarily [focused on] the safety of the community and their response will also account for safety of our police officers,” said RCMP Sgt. Sascha Banks in an email, when asked about the why the RCMP did not attend the gathering, adding that police are continuing to follow up with the complainant to identify those responsible.
Between October 2020 and March 2021, Whistler RCMP issued $69,940 in COVID-related fines, including for large gatherings, as recently as Tuesday, April 20, Banks noted. But just weeks removed from the height of Whistler’s COVID outbreak, police declined to respond to Saturday's gathering.
“I have worked with my team to go over any concerns they have regarding their safety and our protocols for attendance to calls,” Banks added. “As with everyone during this pandemic, we have to address concerns and fears that arise and myself and my police officers are not immune to this.”
While Banks did not directly address a question about the specific factors that went into the decision, there was a confluence of circumstances that led to police not attending, said Vale Inn strata council president Paul Hothersall, who spoke with Banks about the incident earlier this week. According to Hothersall, Banks relayed that police were short-staffed at the time with several officers in self-isolation, while a number of serious criminal incidents in Vancouver Saturday night meant that he was unable to get through to the RCMP E-Comm non-emergency dispatch, which is based in the city.
“I think the [term] Sascha Banks gave to me was that it was a ‘perfect storm,’” he said. “I understand that. However I’m acting as a person who has been asked to deal with the situation and trying to get help."
The National Police Federation (NPF), which represents more than 20,000 RCMP members across Canada, has been vocal about the added risks officers have had to face during the pandemic, particularly as first responders have only recently begun to be immunized in B.C.
With the news today that B.C. will be implementing additional measures granting police the authority to set up roadside checks in and out of three provincial health regions to help curb non-essential travel, NPF president Brian Sauvé said in a statement that “many of our Members are opposed to this proposal as it puts them at risk of public backlash, legal ambiguity, and risk of exposure and possible infection due to the continuing slow immunization roll-out for police in the province.”
Last weekend’s incident also speaks to the muddied waters of COVID-19 enforcement in B.C. After receiving a noise complaint and observing several taxi cabs full of revellers arriving to the townhome, the onsite caretaker contacted Hothersall, who then contacted Whistler Resort Management (WRM), who he said told him to call either security or the RCMP. A spokesperson for Sea to Sky Security confirmed the company was called, but acknowledged that there wasn’t much they had the authority to do, other than inform the occupants of the possibility of a fine. (A representative for WRM was aware of the report from Saturday night, but said he didn’t know of any strata fines being prepared.)
After waiting on hold for more than an hour with police, Hothersall said he drove into the village RCMP detachment to speak to law enforcement. Eventually, he met a group of Mounties on patrol, and said one officer told him that police would not be attending large indoor gatherings until their vaccines took effect. (Banks did not address a question over whether the timing of officers’ vaccines was a factor, but at a presentation to council earlier this week, she told officials that local members were immunized on Friday, April 9, eight days before the house party. Health guidance says it takes at least 14 days for the first dose of the vaccine to provide some protection.)
Hothersall, who penned a letter to mayor and council this week outlining his concerns, said as strata council president he is usually satisfied with the response from local police, “but this was not the response I was expecting or requiring.”
Whistler Mayor Jack Crompton said the nearly $70,000 police have handed out in COVID-19-related fines is proof they are taking the issue seriously, and he remains confident in Mounties’ enforcement strategy.
“Personally, I have full confidence in the RCMP as they assess each situation that they encounter and respond accordingly,” he said.
“I think it’s outrageous and selfish that anyone would be having parties, especially inside right now. It puts our first responders at risk, it puts our entire community at risk, and I can’t emphasize enough how careless those actions are.”
