Inmate’s mom sues Sask. prison
The mother of Christopher Van Camp, the 37-year-old man who died in custody at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in June, has filed a lawsuit against the government.
The statement of claim, filed Monday in Regina Court of Queen’s Bench, names Correctional Service Canada and federal Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould as defendants. Van Camp’s mother, Lauren Laithwaite, and his estate are seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
Allegations contained in a statement of claim have not been proven in court. No statement of defence has yet been filed.
Van Camp was found unresponsive in his cell at the prison on June 7. His mother told Postmedia News in June that he had been granted parole on April 24, but overdosed on cocaine laced with fentanyl on May 24. She said he spent five days in a coma in a Calgary hospital before waking up on May 29.
A few days later, he was arrested for breaching his parole by using drugs. Van Camp battled a drug addiction most of his adult life and had been serving a sentence for armed robbery, fraud, theft and break and enter. He was transferred to the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where the suit alleges, a “violent assault” led to his death. Tyler Vandewater, 28, a fellow prisoner, is charged with second-degree murder.
The lawsuit alleges CSC “knowingly placed the ill, weakened and highly vulnerable Mr. Van Camp into the general population” of the prison and violated his Charter right to life and security of the person by “placing Mr. Van Camp into unsupervised proximity of an extremely violent inmate who assaulted and killed Mr. Van Camp.”
The CSC confirmed that it was served with the claim Tuesday, and is reviewing the claim.