The mother of a man who was shot and killed by RCMP in 2015 is suing the RCMP officer who shot him.
Deborah Edey is the mother of Waylon Edey, who died as a result of police action in Castlegar on Jan. 29, 2015. On Dec. 20, she filed a notice of civil claim against the officer who shot him — identified in the claim as John Doe, as Edey doesn’t know the name of the man who shot her son — and against the Attorney General of Canada, the Solicitor General of the Province of British Columbia and Her Majesty the Queen in right of the Province of British Columbia as represented by the Minister of Public Safety.
Edey said she decided to file the claim “because I felt the officer had done something wrong, and I can’t answer for the courts or the Crown or anything, they have to make their own decision. I just filed the lawsuit because I feel it’s the right thing to do. He has four children and they deserve answers.”
She alleges that “the use of deadly force against the deceased [Waylon Edey] was unwarranted in the circumstances” and that his death “was wrongful and was caused by the negligence or recklessness” of those she’s filed the claim against. Edey is seeking damages for herself and for her four grandchildren.
The claim was filed the day before the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) announced it had filed a report to Crown Council in relation to the shooting.
“We referred it to Crown for consideration of charges, because we did identify that a potential offence may have been committed,” explained Marten Youssef, manager of strategic communications for the IIO.
Youssef was unable to comment on whether or not the Crown’s findings might impact the results of Edey’s suit, and her council, Jesse Gelber of McEwan Law, was unavailable for comment before press time.
Edey said she was pleased with the decision made by the IIO. “The Crown still has to make their decision, and how they feel about it …, but I can say that I was pleased with the outcome,” she said.