$600M lawsuit targets RCMP, government
Police decisions ‘plagued by overt and covert racism,’ claim states
The RCMP’S inadequate response to many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls cases has led some people to believe they can get away with murder, says Regina lawyer Tony Merchant.
“In a sense, they are responsible for some of the deaths because the system doesn’t work,” Merchant said Thursday, after filing a $600 million class-action lawsuit at Federal Court against the RCMP and the Government of Canada.
If potential killers believe they won’t be held accountable for the deaths of Indigenous women and girls, it removes a deterrence that normally protects people, Merchant said.
“We don’t murder each other because we’re civil but … also because we know there’s a justice system that will catch us and punish us. The absence of an effective justice system regarding Indigenous women and girls means they don’t have that protection.
“Somebody will think they can get away with it,” he said.
Regina resident Diane Big Eagle, who says the police ignored calls about the disappearance of her daughter, Danita Faith Big Eagle, for three days, is the named plaintiff.
Big Eagle said she called the police repeatedly before they took a missing person statement from her on Feb. 14, 2007. Even after that, she never seemed to talk to the same person, often her calls weren’t returned, and she was sometimes told to go to the RCMP, who in turn directed her back to the city police.
“My daughter’s been missing for 11 years … I feel that nothing ’s being done,” she said.
“They kind of sloughed it off.” Big Eagle wants compensation to help Danita’s two children and she wants answers that will provide closure. The claim quotes the RCMP’S mandate to apprehend criminals and its code of conduct that expects officers to respect all, maintain the integrity of the law and perform their duties promptly, diligently and impartially.
It also refers to the RCMP’S 2014 findings that Indigenous females are disproportionately the victims of violence and murder.
Police decision-making, resource allocation and investigative decisions are “plagued by overt and covert racism and discrimination,” the claim states.
Allegations in the claim have not been proven in court.
The claim refers to findings from the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the 1991 Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, and states that “government after government have failed to implement the vast majority” of the hundreds of recommendations arising from the reports.
Merchant said a class action allows the weight of multiple cases that might not otherwise prove the case individually, to be considered as a collective by the judge.
“We’ll put evidence before the court of a whole series of examples and … statistical fact of huge danger … Policing hasn’t met the standard,” he said.
The claim seeks $500 million for general damages suffered by the loss of mothers and family members.
It also seeks $100 million for exemplary damages to “punish to induce change.”
“We want policing to have a different attitude and we want policing to serve Canadians properly, not just serve some Canadians properly,” Merchant said.