Chair-Initiated Complaint and Public Interest Investigation: Shooting Death of Mr. John Andrew Simon, Wagmatcook, Victoria County, Nova Scotia, December 2, 2008

March 16, 2010

File No.: 2010-0861

As Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, I am initiating a complaint into the conduct of those unidentified RCMP members involved in the response to and subsequent shooting death of Mr. John Simon in Wagmatcook, Nova Scotia on or about December 2, 2008.

The facts as presently known indicate that on or about December 2, 2008, RCMP members attended Mr. Simon's residence in response to an emergency call. At some point, a member of the RCMP entered Mr. Simon's residence and fatally shot him. I am initiating this complaint with the full appreciation that the RCMP engaged the Halifax Regional Police to undertake an independent investigation into this matter and that the report was completed in December 2009.

Given the ongoing expressions of public concern as they relate to the degree and type of force used by police officers when dealing with individuals and the manner in which members of the RCMP responded to this situation, I am satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Mr. Simon. Accordingly, pursuant to subsection 45.37(1) of the RCMP Act, I am today initiating a complaint into the conduct of all RCMP members or other persons appointed or employed under the authority of the RCMP Act involved in this incident, as well as into matters of general practice applicable to situations involving persons believed to be suicidal or otherwise of a high-risk nature, specifically:

1. whether the RCMP members or other persons appointed or employed under the authority of the RCMP Act involved in the events of December 2, 2008, from the moment of the initial call to the RCMP for assistance, through to the subsequent death of John Andrew Simon, complied with all appropriate training, policies, procedures, guidelines and statutory requirements relating to responding to persons believed to be suicidal, barricaded within a premises, or otherwise potentially of a high-risk nature;
2. whether the RCMP national, divisional and detachment-level policies, procedures and guidelines relating to the manner in which the RCMP responds to persons believed to be suicidal, barricaded within a premises, or otherwise potentially of a high-risk nature, are adequate; and
3. whether the RCMP members involved in the investigation of this incident conducted an investigation that was adequate, and free of actual or perceived conflict of interest, whether they responded appropriately and proportionately to the gravity of the incident, whether they responded in a timely fashion and whether their conduct adhered to the standards set out in section 37 of the RCMP Act.

Furthermore, I am instituting a public interest investigation into this complaint, pursuant to subsection 45.43(1) of the RCMP Act.