Report on Boushie’s death expected this month: watchdog
No word on when examination of RCMP'S handling of the 2016 case will be made public
The independent watchdog agency for the RCMP says it expects to finalize a report this month examining its handling of the investigation into the 2016 death of Colten Boushie.
However, it still remains unclear when that report will be released to the public.
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission launched an investigation after family members of Boushie, a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation, filed a public complaint about the conduct of 10 RCMP officers.
Their concerns included the way officers surrounded Boushie's mother's home the day Boushie died and how they informed her of his death.
The complaint alleges police illegally searched Debbie Baptiste's home and that an RCMP media release about Boushie's death portrayed him as a criminal.
The CRCC'S then-acting chair further directed the commission to launch a public interest investigation to look at whether a reasonable investigation into Boushie's death was conducted, whether the actions taken by the RCMP followed the organization's training, practices and policies, whether those are reasonable, and whether the RCMP'S conduct “amounted to discrimination on the basis of race or perceived race.”
Both investigations, done in tandem, were completed in February 2020, but the CRCC said findings would not be made public until the RCMP'S response was received and reviewed.
The CRCC plans to release the reviews together.
The CRCC says it received a response from RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki last month regarding the public interest investigation and is now awaiting responses to the review of the complaints from Boushie's family.
The RCMP said it will provide those “by the end of the month.”
RCMP national spokesperson Robin Percival said the police service “considers all public complaints to be important and tries to address them in as timely a manner as possible while at the same time ensuring they are assessed thoroughly and appropriately.”
Mary-liz Power, a spokeswoman for Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair, made note of the RCMP plan to respond by month's end in an email to Postmedia. She wrote that “delays in the presentation of these findings are damaging to both the individual who has lodged the complaint and the police service who is its subject.
“Timely, impartial and fair resolution of complaints is what Canadians expect and deserve.”
Boushie was 22 years old when he died on Aug. 9, 2016 from a gunshot wound to the head while on a property owned by Gerald Stanley. A jury found Stanley not guilty of second-degree murder in February 2018.