Inquest facing more delays

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/07/2015 (4099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s been seven years since Winnipeg police shot and killed Craig Vincent McDougall in the yard of his Simcoe Street home.

Though some witnesses saw only a cellphone, police said McDougall was wielding a knife. Two officers involved in the shooting were cleared of any criminal wrong-doing.

A mandatory inquest into McDougall’s death, one that could finally shed light on what happened, will likely be delayed another year. Before it can get underway, McDougall’s family is asking the inquest judge to rule on three issues — whether the inquest counsel ought to be replaced, whether Winnipeg police can keep secret two outside reviews on the shooting and whether the inquest should be expanded to deal with systemic racism.

Lawyers for Craig McDougall’s family will be in court Aug. 7 to argue the first issue — that the Crown prosecutor appointed by the province as inquest counsel risks tainting the process with bias because of the perception of a too-cosy relationship with police.

There “may be an appearance that the Crown in this case would not question these police members who witnessed or played a part in my son’s death as rigorously as independent inquest counsel might,” McDougall’s father, Brian McDougall, said in an affidavit.

The McDougall family is expected to argue that, in past inquests related to police shootings, the lawyer appointed as inquest counsel was not drawn from the ranks of prosecutors.

In a reply filed Friday, the province argued a reasonably informed member of the public would not fear bias, in part because inquests are meant to be non-adversarial and other lawyers representing the McDougall family and Winnipeg police are able to pose tough questions.

Manitoba Justice would not comment further on the matter Tuesday.

McDougall, 26, was shot four times by police in the early morning of Aug. 2, 2008, following a drunken disturbance near the home he shared with his father in the Daniel McIntyre neighbourhood.

Despite anger from the McDougall family and calls from northern chiefs for a speedy inquest, it took nearly five years for Winnipeg police to investigate the shooting and conclude the officers were justified. That cleared the way for an inquest to be called two years ago. The slow process has frustrated the McDougall family.

“We’re asking witnesses and police officers to remember what happened nearly a decade ago,” said Corey Shefman, lawyer for the McDougall family. “Memory is hard at the best of times, and we’re not at the best of times here.”

Still, the family believes there are important preliminary matters the inquest judge must deal with before the formal hearings can begin.

Shefman said he believes at least two external reports were done on the shooting — one by Ontario Provincial Police and one by a retired Ontario Crown attorney. But those have been kept secret from the McDougall family and from the inquest judge, he said. Shefman plans to ask the inquest judge to order those reports be made public because they are relevant to the inquest’s fact-finding mission and the judge’s ability to recommend ways to prevent future deaths.

In a matter than will likely be heard before year’s end, the McDougall family has asked the inquest’s scope be expanded to include the historic relationship between police and First Nations people and what role institutional racism played in McDougall’s death.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca katie.may@freepress.mb.ca