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VANCOUVER - The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says the freezing death of an aboriginal man in a Vancouver alley has created an opportunity to examine systemic racism within police departments and the criminal justice system.

"The Frank Paul inquiry has opened many doors and created a shocking and growing awareness about systemic racism, about how people of colour, about how indigenous people, are victimized and continue to be victimized by the system," Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said Friday at a public inquiry into Paul's death.

He said the shocking evidence heard at the inquiry has captured the attention of First Nations across Canada.

Phillip also criticized the B.C. government for taking nine years to announce the inquiry that aboriginal groups and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association had doggedly fought for.

He said the province's First Nations Leadership Council is outraged that the Criminal Justice Branch is going to court to prevent prosecutors from testifying at the inquiry about why two police officers connected to Paul's death were never charged with any crime.

Paul was found dead of hypothermia in an alley on Dec. 6, 1998, after a police officer dumped him there.

The 48-year-old Mi'kmaq had been picked up for being drunk in a public place but was then refused admission to the city drunk tank. The sergeant on duty said he wasn't intoxicated but only looked that way because of a disability.

A video recording presented at the inquiry showed Paul was dragged, soaking wet, in and out of the drunk tank because he couldn't walk.

Phillip said he and two other aboriginal leaders tried for years to get an inquiry into Paul's death and that former police chief Jamie Graham told them it would never happen.

"We told him with great conviction that 'Oh yes, there will be an inquiry into the death of Frank Paul,'" Phillip said.

"Chief Graham actually made an attempt to convince us that we could have a charade, we could have a sham inquiry and he said, 'You can have your little ceremonies and you can burn your sweet grass and it'll just be like an inquiry.' And we absolutely, unequivocally rejected that notion.

"At that point he looked across his desk at us and he said, 'You do realize public inquiries are nasty, nasty things.' And we said that's exactly the point, that we need to have a public review of all of those decisions that were taken at all of those levels that contributed to Frank Paul's death."

Paul's cousin, Peggy Clement, of Elsipogtog, NB., reminded the inquiry Friday that local RCMP, on behalf of the Vancouver Police Department, told the family Paul died in a hit-and-run accident.

"For two years the family was under the impression he died by a hit-and-run driver," she said during her emotional testimony.

Clement said the family eventually learned the truth from a senior lawyer from the Office of the Police Complaint Commission.

Steven Kelliher, the lawyer for Paul's family, said despite the challenges involved in getting to the inquiry almost a decade after Paul died, it has already been a huge success.

"We have an accounting from all but one of the institutions as to their respective roles as to how they dealt with Frank Paul's death," he said, referring to testimony from various agencies including the police department, the Office of the Police Complaint Commission, the Coroner's Service and the B.C. Ambulance Service.