RCMP Watch

Feb 7 2006 - CBC News
The aunt of a man who had his leg broken in an alleged assault by an RCMP officer says the family is being pressured to deal with the matter outside of the court.

Denise Yuhas refutes assertions by a Crown prosecutor that the family of Devon Herback wants to deal with the matter using the restorative justice system.

Herback was knocked unconscious and suffered a broken leg during an encounter with RCMP Constable Scot Newberry in October 2004.

In dismissing charges of assaulting a police officer against Herback a few months later, Chief Judge Brian Bruser said he felt “there is no doubt that what occurred was excessive force in the course of an unlawful arrest”.

On Monday the federal director of justice for the N.W.T. said there’s enough evidence to charge Newberry with assault causing bodily harm.

But Stuart Whitley said Herback and his mother agreed to deal with the matter through a restorative justice process.

* FROM FEB. 6, 2006: Mountie not getting preferred treatment, says Crown

Yuhas, however, says there’s been no such agreement.

“I feel like they’re being bullied, and I think that’s how she feels too,” she says. “Miscommunication, I’m not sure what it is, but I can tell you for sure that they’re not going to be at that meeting on [February] 23.”

Whitley said a restorative justice meeting on the matter had tentatively been set for that date.

That also came as a surprise to the director of the committee that administers restorative justice in Yellowknife.

Lydia Bardak says no one has talked to her about dealing with the matter through restorative justice.