Prison officers ignored calls for help, lawsuit says

PRINCE GEORGE — A former B.C. inmate is suing the provincial government and two correctional officers for psychological harm, alleging his calls of help for a fellow inmate were ignored.

Gordon Hansen alleges in a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit filed this week that the two officers didn’t stop the vehicle when shackled and handcuffed inmates being transported from a Prince George prison called for help when their fellow inmate went into distress.

The incident occurred on Oct. 4, 2018. Despite other inmates pounding on the walls and shouting, the officers didn’t pull over to ask what had happened, the lawsuit says.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. The Ministry of Public Safety did not return a request a comment. A statement of defence has not been filed.

One of the inmates, who was in the same compartment as Hansen, ingested something and appeared to pass out and slide off the bench, says the lawsuit.

“Despite all the other inmates pounding on the walls and shouting, the corrections officers’ only response to the shouting and pounding was to slam on the brakes and make the inmates fall,” it says. “The corrections van stopped for coffee in Williams Lake, but did not respond to the inmates’ calls for help.”

By the time the officers pulled over, the inmate was unresponsive and a passerby who stopped performed CPR, but the man died, the lawsuit says. Paramedics arrived on the scene about 40 minutes later, it says.

The lawsuit claims the corrections officers breached their duty of care to Hansen and failed to exercise the standard of care required by failing to respond to repeated and continuous calls for help.

The lawsuit asks for general and punitive damages for injuries Hansen sustained, including posttraumatic stress disorder, flashbacks and depression.