The lawyer representing a New Brunswick family alleges the RCMP mistakenly told them their son was dead after a body was found in a public washroom outside Moncton City Hall earlier this week.
According to a release from Forté Law, Donna and David Price of Dieppe got a visit from the RCMP early Tuesday morning, informing them that a body found about an hour prior was their son.
The release said “shock and sorrow” set in for the Prices, who began informing family members, gathering friends and relatives at their home, and started the “inconceivable task of making funeral arrangements.”
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But then, the release alleged, a third party went to their son’s home late Tuesday afternoon to collect belongings and paperwork required by the coroner’s office — “only to discover that the ‘deceased’ son was home, alive and well.
“The Prices immediately contacted the RCMP, who responded by unapologetically challenging the news that their son was, in fact, alive,” the release alleged.
It said police instructed the Prices to contact the coroner’s office. The release said the coroner, while “very apologetic and helpful,” said they had to rely on information received from police.
Shortly after that, two more RCMP members visited the Price family, explaining that after the body was found, an image of the deceased person was broadcast to all active RCMP members. One of them identified him as their son, who was known to police.
“They added that, as a visual identification of the actual deceased was made by other officers the mistake, while regrettable, was understandable,” the release said.
It said the experience has left the family traumatised and some have sought counselling and medical advice.
“The grief and shock, having to tell loved ones of the loss … and to combine it with the arrogance and lack of empathy from the RCMP, it was just too much,” said Donna Price, who was quoted in the release.
Step-father David Price said: “The total lack of remorse or an apology and the high handed arrogant assumptions made about our son, and the actual deceased person are so offensive.”
The Prices extend their condolences to the family of the deceased, the release said. The family also wishes to protect their son by not releasing his name.
Police were negligent: lawyer
In an interview, Brian Murphy, a lawyer with Forté Law, said the RCMP were negligent and failed to take the steps to identify the body properly.
“All of it has caused a lot of anxiety and it’s all because of a negligent investigation,” he said.
Murphy said he met with the Prices Friday and they are in the process of gathering information for a lawsuit. He said the press release was issued to extend a request to the RCMP to apologize for the “screw-up that’s got to be corrected.”
Murphy also noted the “broader, societal issue” of alleged lack of concern for the deceased, who was homeless.
“It just doesn’t seem that, if this was a man … in a pin-striped suit, found in an affluent neighbourhood, that it would have been done the same way,” Murphy said.
In an email response, N.B. RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Hans Ouellette said Friday the agency is “aware of this matter” and is in “communication with family members about this situation.”
“This is not a criminal matter, but may soon be part of a legal process,” Ouellette said in the statement. “Any evidence pertinent to this matter could be presented as part of a judicial or internal process. The RCMP respects fair and impartial proceedings as part of the legal system. As such, it would be inappropriate to comment on evidence or other aspects that may be part of judicial or internal proceedings.”
More action needed to address homelessness: advocate
Meanwhile, the director of a Moncton overdose prevention site says New Brunswick’s decades-long inaction on homelessness is responsible for the man’s death.
Debby Warren, the executive director of Ensemble Moncton, told The Canadian Press her staff revived a man after an overdose at the site Monday evening, then spent hours trying to find a warm place for him to stay.
All beds were full at the city’s two shelters and Warren says she was told by the person who answered the provincial Department of Social Development’s emergency line that the province no longer covers emergency hotel room stays.
After the man in his late 20s was revived, he refused to go to hospital and left the centre after telling Ensemble staff he would try to get in to one of the already-full shelters.
That evening, Warren emailed the minister of social development, local members of the legislature and city officials about the “desperate” lack of emergency housing and said she was worried the man who survived an overdose would suffer hypothermia from sleeping in the cold.
Warren says the man, whose identity has not been made public, was found dead the next morning.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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