Battle Over Mountie's Remains Likely to Continue
The Alberta Court of Appeal recently released its decision in Johnston v. Alberta (Director of Vital Statistics), a case I had been following about the burial of a deceased RCMP officer who had been killed in the line of duty.
The mountie, who was killed along with three other officers in 2005, was buried in his home town in Alberta. A year after his death, his widow (who was also the executor of his estate) became aware of an RCMP policy allowing the deceased’s remains to be buried at the RCMP cemetery in Saskatchewan, which happened to be more than 1000 miles away.
The widow applied for and was granted a disinterment permit by the Director of Vital Statistics. After the permit had been granted, the widow advised the deceased’s mother that she planned to move him. The mother promptly wrote to the Director objecting to the issuance of the permit.
When the Director did not rescind the permit, the mother applied to the court for judicial review of the decision. That application was later dismissed and the Court of Appeal has since dismissed the appeal.
Earlier this week, the mother’s lawyer indicated that they would be applying for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
For her part, the widow’s position is that the deceased would have wanted to be buried at the national RCMP museum. However, the deceased’s mother wants the body buried in the deceased’s hometown, which is near his Metis ancestors.
This matter has already resulted in a tense standoff – last fall the mother and her supporters prevented workers from accessing the grave to exhume the body, despite the court ruling that gave the widow authority to do so.
It will be interesting to see if the SCC decides to hear the case.
Have a great weekend,
Megan F. Connolly
