Photo: RCMP logo
By Bob Mackin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Prince George Citizen
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) decided March 2 that the RCMP discriminated against Indigenous people who accused the Mounties of failing to properly investigate claims they were abused at Catholic-run Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake and Prince George College in the 1960s and 1970s.
“Accommodating the Indigenous crime complainants by ensuring they were told that they could report allegations of abuse, be given an update about the outcome of the investigation into their allegations of abuse, and not be repeatedly offered a polygraph would not have interfered with the RCMP’s duty to conduct its investigations in the public interest,” CHRT member Colleen Harrington wrote in the 145-page decision, which was originally expected in early 2025.
Harrington ruled, on a balance of probabilities, that race and national or ethnic origin were factors in “some of the adverse differential treatment or denial of service that was experienced by some of the complainants and their witnesses in relation to the RCMP’s investigations.”
Six Lake Babine Nation members took their complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017: Cathy Woodgate, Richard Perry, Dorothy Williams, Ann Tom, Maurice Joseph and Emma Williams. Woodgate, Tom and Emma Williams died before the tribunal began hearing testimony in May 2023 in Burns Lake. Hearings continued via videoconference throughout that year and into early 2024.
Harrington ordered the RCMP pay $7,500 damages, plus interest, within 90 days for pain and suffering and wilful and reckless discrimination to: Beverly Abraham (the first person to report to the RCMP in 2012), Ruby Adam, Ts’il Kaz Koh elder Pius Charlie, Joseph, Shuswap member Peter Mueller, Perry, and the estates of Emma Williams and Cathy Woodgate.
“Specifically, I find the following conduct to be discriminatory,” Harrington wrote. “Not advising Peter Mueller that he could separately report his abuse at Prince George College; not providing Richard Perry, Maurice Joseph, Emma Williams, Cathy Woodgate, Ruby Adam and Pius Charlie with an update on the outcome of the investigation into their allegations of abuse or, in the case of Ms. Woodgate, Ms. Adam and Mr. Charlie, not advising them that they could separately report their abuse at Immaculata to the RCMP; and, by asking Beverly Abraham repeatedly to take a polygraph after she disclosed being sexually assaulted as a child.”
The RCMP must review policies, procedures and training so that its investigations of historical abuse allegations are trauma-informed and culturally appropriate. It must report the outcome of the review to the commission within a year.
The compensation was less than the $20,000 sought for each Indigenous person who suffered abuse at the schools and was disbelieved or deprived of justice. Harrington rejected the demand for a new investigation led by an Indigenous organization.
“I have found that the investigations conducted by the RCMP were thorough and that
they acted diligently in seeking out and interviewing many complainants and witnesses.
While I appreciate that the Complainants and their witnesses are unhappy with the outcome of the investigations, the decision whether to recommend a charge is not before the Tribunal.”
The RCMP had argued the tribunal did not have jurisdiction because criminal investigations are not services defined by the Canadian Human Rights Act. The RCMP also maintained its investigation was not discriminatory because it conducted a thorough and professional investigation “in a respectful, trauma-informed and culturally sensitive manner.”
Harrington stated that the case was about the RCMP investigations. It was not about whether the alleged abuse occurred or the conduct of A.B., who worked as a gym teacher and coach at the schools. Due to a publication ban, he was identified only by the initials A.B.
In her conclusion, Harrington accepted the complainants and their witnesses experienced abuse by teachers and nuns and priests and other adults at the schools and they distrust police for a variety of reasons. The inquiry made it clear that mistrust of police and lack of cultural safety remain barriers to Northern B.C. Indigenous people.
“I heard evidence that there is a desire and some movement to change the relationship between the RCMP and Indigenous people in this region and urge the RCMP to make continued efforts to shift the negative social memory Indigenous people in the region hold for the RCMP to a positive one,” Harrington wrote.