Mountie apologizes over B.C. RCMP officer's failure to investigate rape report

A file photo of an RCMP cruiser. (Sean Amato/CTV News Edmonton)

VANCOUVER -

The top officer at a B.C. RCMP detachment is apologizing publicly after a report found a former Mountie failed to appropriately investigate a report of sexual assault.

The apology followed an RCMP Civilian Review and Complaints Commission investigation, which ended in a report siding with the sexual assault victim's claims about how she'd been treated by the officer who took her report.

In an excerpt of the report, the investigator wrote that he agreed with her allegations of neglect of duty and improper attitude.

The allegations included that the Kelowna RCMP constable said the rape report was "not worth her time," and that comments were made doubting the authority of the victim's counsellor, who she'd brought with her when giving her statement.

The victim also alleged the constable ignored her request to proceed with an investigation and possible charges, then falsely documented in her file that she did not want to pursue charges.

The Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter, which is speaking out on behalf of the woman who filed the report, said she was was a 20-year-old resident advisor at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus in 2019 when she was raped by a male resident advisor.

She reported the case about nine months later, and filed a complaint with the CRCC following the response she received at the RCMP detachment.

On Tuesday, an apology was issued by the superintendent of the detachment on behalf of the Kelowna RCMP which acknowledges that Mounties failed to investigate the complaint, and that the victim was not treated properly.

In a public statement, Supt. Kara Triance said the officer involved has "retired" from the Kelowna RCMP, and that she'd apologized to the victim last month.

CTV News is working to obtain a copy of that apology.

In her public statement, Triance wrote, "I am deeply apologetic that our initial response to this incident was not in line with our investigative standards, nor was it a trauma-informed approach to sexual violence."

She said committed to more training, accountability and review in the future, as well as working with partners who support survivors of violence.

A spokesperson for the detachment wrote that sexual violence is "arguably one of the most heinous interpersonal crimes an individual may have to report to police, and therefore, we need to be excellent in our standard of investigative practices."

An investigator with the RCMP's sex crimes division has been assigned to the assault case, and a charge of sexual assault has been recommended.

A short time before the victim in that case approached police, the Kelowna RCMP announced the reopening of a dozen sexual assault cases following a national review.

The review, conducted by the RCMP's National Headquarters Sexual Assault Review Team, looked at the detachment's unusually high rate of "unfounded" sexual assault files. Kelowna's was the first detachment in Canada to be subject to a review from the SART.