The Inquest Files A four-part investigation into judicial oversight of fatal shootings by Manitoba police
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/08/2023 (1122 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Under Canadian law, officers must believe their own life, or that of another, is fundamentally at risk — or at risk of “grievous bodily harm” — to use lethal force.
That scenario has played out 29 times in Manitoba since 2003, with Winnipeg Police Service responsible for 21 deaths, RCMP for seven and the Manitoba First Nations Police Service for one.
The number of fatal shootings involving law enforcement, both in Manitoba and across Canada, has increased in recent years.
The trend has intensified public scrutiny of police conduct and raises questions about whether mandatory inquests are achieving their goal of exploring ways to prevent future deaths.
To find out, the Free Press put two decades of inquests examining deadly encounters with a police bullet under the microscope.
Inquests into fatal shootings by police are marred by lengthy delays, provide little insight or closure
Posted:
The number of fatal shootings involving law enforcement, both in Manitoba and across Canada, has increased in recent years. The trend has intensified public scrutiny of police conduct. It is also raising questions about whether provincial inquests, which are mandatory following lethal shootings, are achieving their goal of exploring ways to prevent future deaths.
A mother's anguish: Families struggle to make sense of deaths at the hands of police, with little support through inquest process
Posted:
Over the last 20 years, 14 inquests have been completed into fatal shootings by police in the province. Lawyers represented victims’ families in about half those cases.
Inquests into fatal shootings rely heavily on a narrative driven by law enforcement
Posted:
While the mandatory inquests are prohibited from assigning blame, they do tell a story. A four-month Free Press investigation has found that the story tends to be narrated by police lawyers, police officers and police use-of-force instructors.
No recommendations for change in two-thirds of Manitoba inquests examining fatal shootings by police
Posted:
Judges have opted not to make recommendations in nine of 14 inquests held in the last 20 years into fatal encounters with police. When recommendations were made, they sometimes simply urged a party to “consider” adopting a particular policy, rather than actually implementing it.
Marsha McLeod
Investigative reporter
Signal
Marsha McLeod is an investigative reporter at the Free Press. She joined the Free Press in 2023. Read more about Marsha.
Every piece of reporting Marsha produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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