Impunity: the RCMP and a tale of two mothers

First it was Sofia Cisowski, mother of Robert Dziekanski, killed by four RCMP officers in the Vancouver Airport: after suing, she got an out-of-court settlement and a public sort-of apology from RCMP brass.

Now Linda Bush, the mother of Ian Bush, a young man shot dead under suspicious circumstances by RCMP Constable Paul Koester, has abandoned her lawsuit against the Mounties.

Suspicious circumstances? Yup.

The officer was not charged but a coroner’s inquest into the death raised many troubling questions about the event.

The officer’s description of what happened in the final seconds leading up to the shot, seemed anatomically impossible. The police officer said he was lying face down on a sofa with the 190-pound Mr. Bush on top of him and yet somehow he reached around with one of his hands and shot the young logger directly in the back of the head.

Const. Koester refused to demonstrate how that was possible.

An independent blood spatter expert called in by a lawyer for the Bush family said blood evidence at the scene suggested it was Const. Koester who was on top of the victim, not the other way around.

It was also revealed at the inquest that the constable destroyed his notes from the evening in the immediate days after the incident. When he was interviewed by investigators three months later, they supplied him with their questions in advance. [emphases added]

Reading between the lines, Linda Bush was running out of money for legal bills, and, like Cisowski, wanted closure. I hope she gets it.

And, at this point, the five RCMP officers involved are still on-duty and walking among us. Maintiens le Droit.