By Canadian Press

Advocates and family of man shot by RCMP launch ‘people’s tribunal’ to probe police

Mar 14, 2025 | 1:59 PM

VANCOUVER — Legal advocates and relatives of an Indigenous man shot dead by RCMP officers in Campbell River, B.C., in 2021 have launched what they call a “people’s tribunal” to investigate crimes committed by police.

Laura Holland, the mother of Jared Lowndes, says she’s “tired of waiting” for justice for her son, who was shot twice in the back in his car at a Tim Hortons drive-thru.

The B.C. Prosecution Service last year declined to lay charges against any of the three officers involved in the incident, which the service says included Lowndes reversing his car into a police vehicle, trying to bear-spray police and stabbing a police dog to death.

A group including Wet’suwet’en First Nation member Holland and her supporters, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Pivot Legal Society, say the people’s tribunal will both gather and share information about crimes by police.

They say the first event will be held on Saturday in the Downtown Eastside before travelling across B.C.

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Latoya Farrell, policy staff counsel with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, says indigenous communities have been over-policed while under-protected, and the forum could shine a light on systemic failures of law enforcement and the legal system.

Meenakshi Mannoe, policing campaigner at the Pivot Legal Society says the tribunal could help provide oversight of police.

“It’s a community-based forum that’s going to uplift the voices of directly impacted family members, rather than investing power in colonial tools of government and lawyers and academics. It’s putting that power back into the hands of community,” said Mannoe.

The prosecution service said in a statement last April that “available evidence” wouldn’t suffice to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the three Campbell River RCMP officers “committed any offence” related to 38-year-old Lowndes’ death in July 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 14, 2025.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press