A 17-year-old Tuktoyaktuk resident who claims he endured violence and racial slurs from Mounties during an arrest last year is leading a $600 million class action lawsuit against RCMP in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon.
In a statement of claim filed in Federal Civil Court on Wednesday, Joe David Nasogaluak, who was 15-years-old at the time of the alleged incident, claims he was assaulted by RCMP officers when he was arrested just outside of Tuktoyaktuk in 2017. The claim alleges Mounties hurled racist remarks at Nasogaluak and beat him as they took him into custody.
In December of last year, Nasogaluak’s “furious” father spoke out about the alleged incident in an interview with News/North. His father claimed his son was tasered by police. He said the incident occurred after police stopped his son on a snowmobile. “The cops asked them if they were drinking. They think they’re Native so they must be drinking,” the father said.
This photo, provided to News/North by a Tuktoyaktuk man, appears to show two very faint marks on a jacket, which the man says are Taser marks. He says the marks were left by RCMP when they Tasered his 15-year-old son in early November. The Mounties deny a Taser was used on the youth.
Mounties denied the allegations, and maintained no taser was ever used.
Nasogaluak’s allegations are part of a pending class action lawsuit against the Attorney General of Canada - who oversees the RCMP - for the police force's “use of excessive force against Aboriginal persons in the Territories,” stated a news release from Koskie Minsky LLP and Cooper Regel, the two law firms launching the legal action, earlier this week.
In alleging “systemic negligence,” breach of duty and violations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the lawsuit is pursuing $500 million in damages, along with another $100 million in punitive damages.
Steven Cooper, one of the civil litigators attached to the claim, told News/North on Thursday the firm is currently looking at 12 other possible plaintiffs. Since the news release, said Cooper, more than half a dozen other individuals have reached out to him.
“What it tends to do in these types of class actions is let’s people know they aren’t alone,” said Cooper. “That’s particularly important when they are potentially coming up against an active authority.”
Cooper said when people are afraid, they find strength in numbers.
“And we are now actively seeking to represent those people and deal with the power imbalance that is inherent in any relationship with the police, but also particularly with the Indigenous community and the police,” he said, adding past injustices are well documented.
The lawsuit will need to clear legal hurdles before reaching the courts.
In order for a class action lawsuit to move forward, a judge must accept there is a cohesive group of people with shared set of issues. In the meantime, the claim is pending until a court certifies the action.
Then, the lawsuit could go to trial, or be settled along the way.
Cooper said the claim comes at a time when the federal government has, in some cases, "recognized that these historical wrongs have occurred." But Cooper added these injustices are "ongoing" and "need to be stopped." That's part of the reason, he said, the punitive damages make up 20 per cent of the what the firm is seeking in damages.
"Because this isn't something that happened 20 years ago, this is something that could just as easily happened 20 minutes ago."
Koskie Minsky LLP and Cooper Regel have led notable class action lawsuits involving the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop.