B.C. Law Society names OPCC counsel in probe over obscenity that derailed hearing

VANCOUVER – The Law Society of British Columbia has confirmed it is investigating Brad Hickford, counsel for a public hearing into the death of Myles Gray, over concerns about an obscenity resulting in the adjournment of the long-awaited proceeding this week.

The vulgar remark was broadcast on Wednesday over the audio stream of the hearing into Gray’s death in 2015 after a beating by seven Vancouver police officers.

Hickford, appointed by the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, said he was not in a position to comment and referred questions to his own lawyer, Richard Neary, who said his client denied making the remark.

The society told The Canadian Press in an email that the incident involved Hickford, but later clarified it had not meant to confirm his identity as the speaker of the obscenity, but instead that he was being investigated over the remark.

“It’s quite possible that a complaint has been lodged alleging that he did that, but there’s no way that the law society has concluded that’s the case in two or three short days since the event occurred,” Neary said Friday.

“There’s microphones throughout that room and there’s a number of possibilities,” he said.

“(Hickford) is gutted at the fact that this has occurred and that the hearing is potentially jeopardized as a result.”

The remark caught on a microphone describes someone as “stupid,” followed by an extreme vulgarity sometimes used to describe women.

The Gray hearing that opened Monday and had been scheduled to last up to 10 weeks was adjourned midway through Wednesday’s testimony after the remark.

The Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner had urged caution Thursday against trying to figure out the source and the target of the comment.

Robert Lapper, a law professor at the University of Victoria, said it was “very surprising that a lawyer would use that form of expression, particularly in the context of a hearing, obviously, in the professional context.”

Lapper, a former head of the Law Society of Ontario, said the code of conduct governing lawyers’ behaviour requires courtesy and fairness, and while lawyers are allowed to engage in “zealous advocacy” for their clients, they must do so with civility.

“Often one can be annoyed at another counsel and not appreciate what they’ve had to say or do, but to have that kind of comment picked up, I think is where the problem lies, and it contributes to the question that I think the law society is probably now looking at,” he said. 

Lapper said it would be “very unfortunate” if the proceedings were delayed as a result, and he’s “seen the questions of civility play out in disciplinary tribunals and in courts’ review of disciplinary tribunals’ findings.”

“Certainly, if I were talking to a law school class, I would be using this as a case in point, as a cautionary tale,” he said. “I’ll be using it, assuming that it all proves to be true.”

The seven officers have denied misconduct at the hearing, which was requested by Gray’s family. None of the officers has ever been charged or disciplined over the deadly incident, which left Gray with injuries including ruptured testicles and fractures in his eye socket, nose, voice box and rib.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2026.