“It’s a cold feeling. But I am obligated to try and find some kind of closure for me and my family,” said the former Richmond resident Monday from his home at Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine Coast. “Somebody took the life of my daughter, and I can’t get any answers about who is responsible for it.”
Mahy is referring to the death of Christy Mahy, 36, who was on her way home on the afternoon of July 30, 2014 to nearby Burkeville and had stopped her bicycle for the lights to change at the junction of Russ Baker Way and the Dinsmore Bridge on Sea Island. Moments later, she was struck by a Pontiac Aztek bearing a novice driver “N” and later died in hospital.
Just over two years later, no one has been charged in connection with the incident and the RCMP remain tight-lipped as to why.
Mahy, who organized a second memorial motorcycle ride for Christy this past July 30, said he feels shut out of the process and is desperate for answers.
“I mean, there was one car involved, it was the middle of the afternoon, and there were plenty of witnesses,” he said. “What more is there to investigate?”
For families in that position, there is little they can do to pry more information from the police, said Doug King, a lawyer who serves as the police accountability campaigner with the Pivot Legal Society, a Vancouver-based legal advocacy organization whose aim is to represent and defend the marginalized and disenfranchised.
“That’s, arguably, one of the problems we have in our system,” he said. “Obviously, it’s good practice to involve loved ones, family members and related parties, in the process. But there’s no obligation on their (police) part to provide any information.
“In some ways, it’s the customer service question in relation to policing. And certainly, police have been criticised in the past for not being upfront with victims and families about what has happened in an investigation, and the decisions they have made and ultimately why people are either charged or not charged.”
Complicating matters in the Mahy case is the tidbit of information investigators offered up about a year ago that the person of interest in the matter had left Canada. Just where they returned to is not clear, but Ron Mahy said he was told Canada does have an extradition agreement with that country, which is believed to be the UK.
“If an individual is allowed to leave the country, and if that was partly due to the length of the investigation, or if there were mistakes made in the investigation, then that’s a huge problem,” King said, adding that if a suspect has not been charged, there is nothing in place for the police to restrict their movement.
“It’s very unclear what the consequences would be if that was allowed to happen and whether or not the victim or family would have a (legal) action against the police. Arguably, you could say that was negligence by the police in their investigation.”
“But, at the end of the day, the justice system does not grant any specific rights to victims,” King said.
“Police and prosecutors act in the public interest and because of that they are pretty much shielded from scrutiny,” he said. “That’s why it’s important for the RCMP, and other police agencies, to conduct investigations quickly and make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“If, ultimately, the family is unhappy with the way things develop, they have just as much right as anybody else to complain,” he added.
It’s hard to predict what the police have in store for this particular case, he added.
For their part, when the News asked for an update on the case, the RCMP stated, via email, that it understood the emotional toll the tragedy and ensuing investigation could be having on the family, but that it remained “committed to this investigation and to keeping the family informed about the status of the investigation moving forward.”
Richmond RCMP also indicated some cases just take time to be resolved.
“To give some context, a cyclist fatality from 2013, received charge approval by Crown Counsel in March of this year,” said Richmond RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dennis Hwang in an email to the News. “Prior to that time, there was insufficient evidence to proceed. The investigation did remain open and active.”
That’s cold comfort for Ron Mahy, who has no idea where to go next.
He said in the days leading up to this year’s memorial ride he did receive a phone call from the RCMP.
“But they told me the same thing they did the year before, that they were still investigating the case,” he said.
Two years without any further answers or charges is too long, King said, adding it can breed suspicion that the matter is not being handled properly or has encountered delays due to other circumstances, such as lack of investigative resources.
“When they (police) don’t fill that communications gap, when they are not honest and up front about the progress of an investigation, it tends to spark peoples’ suspicions and it leads to that kind of mistrust which is really something police departments want to avoid.”
If it’s a resources question, that’s something that needs to be addressed on a governmental level, King said, adding it then becomes a matter of whether or not police agencies are being adequately funded.
Looming over this is the time restriction some cases have in terms of laying charges.
So, where does a family go from here?
If Richmond had a municipal force, an individual could go to the province’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (opcc.bc.ca). However, complaints involving the RCMP, need to be lodged with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (cpc-cpp.gc.ca) in Ottawa, but King notes, “This is not typically the kind of case they would jump in on.”
King added it is worth noting that the RCMP initially said the decision for charges to be laid would take up to six months.
“It’s now taken two years. So, there’s certainly a huge question there of what happened and what caused their initial assessment of six months to be significantly longer than it was.”
