RCMP’s body-cam video in IIU hands after fatal shooting

The police watchdog review of a fatal shooting by an RCMP officer on a Manitoba First Nation earlier this week will, for just the second time, use video from a body camera worn by a Mountie.

Manitoba RCMP began equipping some front-line officers with body cameras last November.

Footage from the Tuesday-morning incident at Sagkeeng First Nation “is now restricted to only a few investigators within the RCMP, and videos are not shared,” a spokesperson said.

Shay Houle, 29, died after he was shot by an RCMP officer early Tuesday morning. In a statement, the RCMP said they responded to two 911 calls reporting a man armed with a knife at a Sagkeeng home shortly after 6:30 a.m.

“An encounter occurred” when police arrived and an officer shot the man. The statement did not provide further details.

The officers administered medical care until emergency crews arrived, according to RCMP. Houle was taken to hospital, where he later died.

Houle’s family can ask the Independent Investigation Unit — Manitoba’s civilian-led agency that reviews police-involved injuries and deaths — to see the video, RCMP said.

“We want to see it,” said Taryn Bruere, a close friend of Houle’s.

That’s unlikely to happen, according to Christopher Schneider, a professor of sociology at Brandon University, who has studied body-worn cameras in policing and has authored a book on the subject that will be released in January.

“In the Canadian context, the privacy legislation is very strict, and it’s federal,” Schneider said. “So this basically restricts police from releasing body-worn camera footage in a public context.

“There are some rare exceptions where it could be released, but as a general practice, this is not something that happens in Canada.”

He said if someone wants to see footage of themselves taken by a police camera, they have to make a freedom of information request, which could take months.

Bruere, who said her nephew was in the home and witnessed the confrontation and shooting, wants to know how the situation escalated as quickly as it did.

“Why did they have to shoot him?” she said. “Why couldn’t they have used a Taser or rubber bullets? They didn’t have to shoot him in the chest.”

Bruere said Houle suffered from depression and had suicidal ideations recently. She and her nephew think it’s possible Houle may have tried to attack the officer “because he couldn’t do it himself.”

RCMP said the officers involved were wearing body-worn cameras activated upon their arrival at the home. The officers weren’t injured.

The video footage was turned over to the IIU, which investigates police-involved injuries and deaths.

That was the case last May, when an RCMP officer with the Carberry detachment shot a 54-year-old woman acting erratically on the Trans-Canada Highway. The woman had been walking into traffic and climbing on vehicles while armed with a “bladed weapon,” Mounties said at the time.

Police said she was shot after ignoring repeated commands to drop the weapon and then “advanced quickly” towards an officer.

“So, all of this is meant to suggest that body-worn cameras in the Canadian context is that we, the public, and individual family members, and indeed the First Nations people on this reserve, are going to have to rely on the narrative that’s provided both by the RCMP and the IIU,” Schneider said.

“In other words, believe us when we tell you that the person had a knife and the use of force (was necessary)… there really is not any transparency in the Canadian context.”

For weeks, the Free Press has sought updated data on the body-worn camera rollout in Manitoba. RCMP said they planned to release more information Wednesday — including whether all officers in the province are outfitted with the cameras — but will now do that next week.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca