Family of B.C. man shot by RCMP says investigations set up to fail
The family of a British Columbia man fatally shot by RCMP is asking questions about the office that investigates police-involved deaths across the province, saying its very structure makes it “designed to fail.”
Peter de Groot was living on a homestead in southeastern B.C. when he was involved in a confrontation with RCMP in October 2014 and fled into the bush.
The 45-year-old, described by his family as an accomplished scholar who had suffered a disabling brain aneurysm, was found in a cabin four days later and police have said he was shot and killed by an officer after he pointed a rifle at them.
A report released March 29 by the Independent Investigations Office concludes the officer’s actions were justified and charges are not warranted, but de Groot’s family says in a statement that many key issues remain unanswered.
They say the office carefully selected the evidence used in its report, that it was stymied by a lack of resources and received no co-operation from the RCMP officer who fired the fatal shot.
Ron MacDonald, chief civilian director of the office, said in an interview Friday that the law clearly states people who are being investigated for a potential criminal offence can’t be forced to give a statement.
“That has to be their voluntary choice, and that’s what the Supreme Court of Canada has told us.”
The family’s lawyer, Donald Sorochan, said the structure of the Independent Investigations Office makes delays and inadequate results inevitable.
Sorochan said the agency is modelled on Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, but in setting up B.C.’s office, the province “ignored the many years of challenges and resistance to oversight by police stakeholders in Ontario, which had necessitated several reports by senior judges.”
B.C.’s office uses a memorandum of understanding with police agencies and doesn’t have the “statutory and regulatory enactment foundation” found in Ontario, Sorochan said in a statement issued Friday on behalf of de Groot’s family.
“Unlike Ontario, the IIO is required to investigate actions of members of the RCMP, a force that does not welcome oversight by anyone outside their ranks,” he said.
The report clearing the RCMP officer of wrongdoing does not comment on most of the interaction between de Groot and police, focusing instead on whether there was any basis for a criminal charge, the family statement said.