‘Unaccountable systems’: Wet’suwet’en man’s family sues B.C. RCMP over shooting death

Family members of a Wet’suwet’en man shot and killed by the RCMP have filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court, the day before the two-year anniversary of his death.

Relatives of Jared Lowndes, a member of the Laksilyu Clan who lived in Campbell River, allege in a notice of civil claim that he was shot and killed by unnamed Mounties at at a local Tim Hortons on July 8, 2021.

Lowndes’ mother Laura Holland and his daughters Phoenix and Patience say in their lawsuit that he was in his vehicle the day he was killed, boxed in by multiple police cars and attacked by a police dog that was sent in through a window.

The lawsuit names Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth and four unnamed RCMP constables as defendants. Farnworth said in a statement Friday he could not comment on the matter before the courts.

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According to the notice of civil claim, B.C.’s police watchdog, the Independent Investigations Office, referred the case to Crown prosecutors in December 2022, believing charges may be warranted against three Mounties over the use of force.

Lowndes’ family say they’ve suffered great anguish since the killing, developing depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress after losing the care and guidance and financial support he provided while he was alive. Lowndes worked as a tenant support worker in information technology at the time of his death.

The family’s lawyer, Neil Chantler, said Lowndes’ death at the hands of the RCMP was a senseless killing with many unanswered questions about how police handled the situation.

Lowndes’ mother and children are claiming aggravated, punitive and other damages, calling the actions of police that day “unprovoked, unwarranted and in complete disregard of the ordinary standard of morality or decent conduct.”

“Allowing the Police Defendants to escape punishment or sanction for their shocking and callous behaviour would cause the community’s respect for the law and for the administration of justice to be diminished,” they allege in the notice of claim.

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According to the website Justice for Jared, the 38-year-old father had connections to the Xwemalhkwu First Nation through his daughters, extended family and friends. He was reportedly engaged in work to reclaim Indigenous land and create homes for his community prior to his death.

“He was a protector for those without voices. He would stand up for us when nobody else would,” reads a post from a childhood friend, Randy Geddes on the website.

The Pivot Legal Society is supporting the Justice for Jared Movement as well. In a Friday news release, criminalization and policing campaigner Meenakshi Mannoe described the “paltry access to justice” for families whose loved ones have been killed by police.

“B.C.’s outdated legislation fails to recognize that wrongful deaths in police custody have rippling and intergenerational effects that can never be quantified,” she wrote.

In the same release, Holland, Lowndes’ mother, sent a direct message to the RCMP: “You cannot keep killing us.”

“Across B.C. and Canada, Indigenous Nations, communities and families are reeling from continued police killings of our people. We must replace these unaccountable systems,” she said. “Nothing will bring my son back, my granddaughter will never have her dad at her graduation, and there will be no father to walk her down the aisle if or when she marries. There will be no one to guide her and teach her the things that only a dad can.

“The reality that too many Indigenous people face is that our deaths are swept under the rug because we lack the resources to bring cases like this against police and government, who have access to seemingly-endless resources to fight our people.”

A gathering is slated to be held in Vancouver’s Grandview Park on Saturday to call for justice.

— with files from Global News’ Elizabeth McSheffrey