Families of people who died in police encounters say getting accountability is a long journey and sometimes proves impossible.
Toronto Star: OTTAWA—Martha Martin can still remember the exact time police knocked on her door saying her daughter, Chantel Moore, had been shot and killed.
It was 4:19 a.m. on June 4, 2020, in Edmundston, N.B.
Martin had received a knock at her door a few hours earlier to tell her someone had called police for a wellness check on her daughter.
According to a report by the independent investigation unit, police arrived to find Moore, 26, with a knife. After backing onto the balcony and asking her to drop it, the officer fired a gun. Moore was soon dead.
Five months later, Martin’s son Mike would die in police custody. New Brunswick prosecutors decided not to lay charges against the officer for Moore’s death. Mike’s death was declared a suicide.
“When people say in time it gets easier, it doesn’t,” said Martin. “You just, you learn to live with the pain.”
Moore loved music, her mother said. She played the piccolo and flute and had a “loving, bubbly energy,” a presence when she walked into the room. Mike would give the jacket off his back to help someone.
Since her children’s deaths, Martin has been advocating for changes in policing. She and other families travelled in October to Ottawa, where she spoke to the Star through tears in a hotel lobby — to call for a national inquiryinto police-involved deaths of Indigenous people.
Nine people died in less than a month this fall from direct police interactions: Jack Piché, Hoss Lightning-Saddleback, Tammy Bateman, Jason West, Danny Knife, Steven “Iggy” Dedam, Ronald Skunk, Jon Wells and Joseph Desjarlais.
Despite the worldwide conversations around race and policing brought on by the 2020 murder of George Floyd in the U.S., there has been less focus on how Indigenous people are disproportionately affected by Canada’s justice system. These nine deaths add to the evidence that Indigenous people are more likely to end up harmed in an encounter with police. For families like Martin’s, getting accountability from police forces is a long journey with several roadblocks. And for many, the justice they seek may simply never come.
Tracking deaths at hands of police
Since 2000, over 16 per cent of those killed through police use of force were Indigenous, though they make up only five per cent of the Canadian population, according to data collected by Tracking (In)Justice, a project by Carleton University, University of Toronto and Queen’s University, tracking police-involved deaths nationally.
The community-based project collects data from media, coroners and policing oversight bodies. It tracks the deaths of civilians from use of force by police — such as Tasers, physical force and restraint, pepper spray and firearms — and is developing a database to track deaths in police custody.
Alexander McClelland, an associate professor of criminology at Carleton and the project lead, said they chose to not assign race to cases themselves, so the over-representation of Indigenous deaths is likely even higher.
The project identifies race where previously identified by police, other authorities or the media.
The project also works with victims’ families seeking justice. McClelland said many are advocating changes in policing.
“We’re talking about people’s lives,” said Andy Crosby, a postdoctoral researcher for the project, “not just numbers.”
The RCMP, which provides policing for 22 per cent of the population, does not track race-based data and couldn’t provide the Star data on interventions involving Indigenous people. It’s been working on an initiative since 2021 and this year launched pilots to collect race-based data in four cities.
Robin Percival, a representative for the RCMP, said in a statement that this data “along with meaningful engagement with communities and front-line members will determine the steps we must take to eliminate systemic racism from our policies and practices.”
Rae Banwarie, an RCMP officer for over 20 years who retired in 2017, said in an interview that the force’s current actions are not enough to combat its systemic racism.
In a report Banwarie submitted in 2020 to a Senate committee, he said racism, bias and discrimination in policing “is a by-product of the myriad of core issues impacting our national police force from within.”
But Crosby said the issue of police violence goes beyond the RCMP.
Police rarely charged in deaths
Rodney Levi was a family man, an athlete and an avid churchgoer.
The 48-year-old from the Metepenagiag First Nation in New Brunswick would put up all his sisters’ Christmas lights each year, made sure everyone in the room had coffee and made his family feel loved.
“He was just the light of the room, like he’d walk in and everyone just gravitated to him,” said Charlene Levi, Rodney’s niece. She and her sister, Gina Patles, also travelled to Ottawa in October to call for an inquiry.
“I used to look up to him so much.”
On June 12, 2020, Levi was at his pastor’s house for a barbecue just off the reserve, something he had done before with someone he knew well, his nieces told the Star. Levi had a mental health crisis, and the pastor’s son called police.
Shortly after two RCMP officers arrived, Levi was Tasered, then one officer fired their gun at Levi. He was declared dead at a hospital.
According to the RCMP’s report and the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes of Quebec, who investigated, Levi was armed with knives and had threatened the officer. Charlene and Patles argue Levi never charged at the officer and said according a phone video, he stumbled towards one officer after pulling the Taser off himself. The Star has not seen this footage or independently confirmed this information.
Seven months later, Crown prosecutors, based on Quebec’s independent investigation — including 11 witness interviews and one video — determined no unlawful use of force occurred.
The RCMP has the highest number of serious incidents and deaths, but it does not have its own independent oversight agency for serious incidents. Instead, independent oversight bodies investigate in all provinces and territories.
In Ontario, the Special Investigations Unit is the civilian oversight body that probes serious incidents and can charge officers with a criminal offence. The SIU has to establish grounds to lay a charge using all evidence available — including police reports, bodycam and cellphone footage, and witness accounts..
According to SIU data, since 2020 there were 228 death cases investigated. Of these, only five resulted in officers being charged for unnecessary use of force, or two per cent.
(The RCMP could not say how many officers have been charged for unlawful use of force in that period.)
“Unlike anybody else in society, police officers have that power to use force when such use is justified under the criminal law,” said SIU director Joseph Martino.
“That’s what I need to assess whether, in any given set of circumstances, those justifications apply.”
Some have questioned how independent these oversight bodies are. Ontario’s SIU has non-active police officers as well as civilians. Martino said it is important to have former officers familiar with police training and techniques, and his doesn’t affect the impartiality of their investigations.
Martino said while the SIU has victim services for families, he is often frustrated not to be able to give them many answers.
“I’m just left with having to tell the community we’ve done, given the tools at our disposal, the best job we can.”
Even with the small percentage of cases where charges are laid, most cases are dropped by special prosecutors. Caitlyn Kasper, senior staff lawyer for the non-profit Aboriginal Legal Services, said this often happens because prosecutors find “no reasonable prospect of conviction” based on the evidence provided from the SIU.
“Because they’re the ones who are prosecuting, they are considered to have the expertise in terms of what reasonable chance of conviction would be,” said Kasper, an expert on police violence, who at inquests has represented families of Indigenous people killed by police.
Beyond prosecution, families can pursue civil litigation, but this must begin within two years of the incident or when the family becomes aware of harm occurring. Kasper said police oversight investigations can drag on for years.
Martino said legislation mandates the SIU complete probes in 120 days, but death investigations often take longer.
Kasper called civil litigation “incredibly difficult” as it’s a “niche” area and only some lawyers will take on these cases. She said most cases settle out of court.
Many lawyers, Kasper said, will only get paid upon a settlement, which could take years, making it difficult for families to find representation.
In New Brunswick, Rodney Levi’s family is pursuing civil litigation against the RCMP. They have been holding an annual baseball tournament to help pay for a lawyer.
McClelland said he’s worked through Tracking (In)Justice with many families who went into debt paying legal fees for inquests and litigation. As well, he said many families feel a lack of support or face the stigma over their relatives’ mental health crises.
“Some have lost their homes and ended up in shelters,” McLelland said. “Some people, out of poverty, have to live in the same home in which the police came in and killed their child.”
Coroners’ inquests are usually called after the investigation is complete — automatically in Ontario — and all possible appeals are over. The inquest gives families a chance to participate, and unlike in the independent investigations, officers must testify. However, inquests can’t lay criminal charges, only make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.
In Levi’s case, the 2021 coroner’s inquest labelled his death a homicide. Martino noted this is using the criminal code definition, meaning the “death was caused by a third party.”
“Simply because the coroner has classified a death as a homicide does not necessarily mean that it was a culpable homicide,” or rather one where there is blame. However, in Ontario, the SIU would reopen an investigation if warranted by new evidence.
Levi’s inquest had several recommendations for policing, but Patles said the community still relies on the RCMP, though many distrust it.
“We’re hoping to eventually be more self-sufficient in policing ourselves, but it’s caused a lot of trauma and really tore our family apart, and we’re still feeling it.”
Justice is healing
Jared Lowndes predicted he would die at the hands of the RCMP, he wrote to his lawyer in January 2021. In the letter, Lowndes, a 37-year-old father from Wet’su’wet’en, described his previous treatment by police when he was incarcerated and faced previous charges, which he denied.
The letter proved prophetic. Lowndes was fatally shot by three Mounties from Campbell River, B.C., seven months later, on July 8.
Lowndes’s mother, Laura Holland, described him as “the funniest kid,” someone always giving hugs and who loved animals.
“He was very seldom alone,” she said. “So a lot of people looked to him for safety and some connection or just some help.”
According to the police report and B.C.‘s Independent Investigations Office, officers pursued Lowndes after he failed to stop at a traffic stop. They located Lowndes at a Tim Hortons drive-thru with a service dog where officers fired their guns and Lowndes was pronounced dead.
Holland said they did not know about the letter until after he died. She said that day they had just been with Lowndes “up north,” clearing land to build houses. Because of bears, Lowndes went into Campbell River to buy a knife and bear spray. Holland said she believes he used them to kill the service dog in self-defence.
The independent investigation found “reasonable grounds existed to believe that three officers may have committed offences in relation to various uses of force,” but this past April the B.C. Prosecution Service declined to pursue those charges after concluding “the available evidence” did not meet the service’s standards for proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Holland said she has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the RCMP in B.C.
“One way or the other, we’ll be able to hear what happened,” she said. “We’ll be able to see the video. We’ll be able to have a look at all the so-called evidence.”
For Holland and Martha Martin, who have become strong advocates against police violence, justice is their healing.
“We want our children and our grandchildren to be able to walk around in this world safely one day without being worried about being killed by police, just because they’re Indigenous,” Holland said.
Kasper said change needs to start with legislation to make oversight bodies tougher and more transparent, including the ability of families to participate in misconduct hearings or be provided legal representation.
Martin still has many questions about her children’s deaths. She is still waiting for the coroner’s inquest into the death of her son in police custody.
But while Martin is still fighting for justice, she doesn’t think she’ll ever get closure.
“It’s an open wound that’s never going to go away.”
By Joy SpearChief-Morris: Ottawa Bureau
Joy SpearChief-Morris is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics and Indigenous issues for the Star. Reach her via email: jspearchiefmorris@thestar.ca