Lawyer Skeptical of Elder Abuse Investigation

Thursday, February 19, 2004 at 13:37

 

 

A lawyer doesn’t believe anything significant will come out of an investigation into complaints of Mounties physically manhandling a Metis elder.

 

Dwayne Roth is a Metis lawyer in Saskatoon who is looking into allegations that 67-year-old Jacob Lavallee was roughed up by two RCMP officers in Montreal Lake last fall.

 

Roth says Lavallee’s rights were clearly violated and those responsible should be disciplined.

 

However, Roth says he has dealt with similar cases before and he doesn’t have a lot of trust into how the RCMP traditionally handles these matters.

 

He expects the RCMP will likely conclude the officers involved did nothing that violated proper procedures.

 

Roth says he has instructions from his client to commence with a civil lawsuit against the police.

 

Roth adds the behaviour shown by the two officers in the incident is unacceptable and he intends to see the matter through to the end.