Police tape cordons off the motel room where Alishia Lemp was found dead in February 2020.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

A BC man has lost a legal case against the province's police watchdog which he launched after reading a newspaper article.

According to a recently published Jan. 9 BC Supreme Court decision, civilian Martin Duhamel had no direct involvement in the case, but took the Independent Investigations Office of BC to court arguing the watchdog had overstepped its mark by criticizing a Vernon RCMP officer's conduct following a murder in 2020.

Duhamel argued it wasn't in the police watchdog's mandate to give its opinion about the officer's conduct and it should have just stuck to the facts.

The case involves the murder of Alishia Lemp who was found dead at Canada's Best Value Inn and Suites in February 2020. Paige Howse was later convicted and sentenced to five years jail.

Prior to Lemp's murder, an unnamed Vernon North Okanagan RCMP officer arrived at the motel following a 911 call about a disturbance in one of the rooms.

An Independent Investigations Office report later criticized the unnamed officer for only checking with the front desk.

"The appropriate response in these circumstances, rather than writing reports or returning phone calls, was for him to attend promptly to the scene, possibly to intercede in an ongoing assault and, at the very least, for a safety and wellness check," the watchdog said in its report. "Instead the (officer) remained stationary for approximately eight minutes and then made his way to the scene without haste. Once at the scene, the (officer's) clear duty was to investigate personally by locating and speaking with the complainant and by going to the location where the alleged assault had occurred in an attempt to find and assist a potential victim."

The police watchdog found the officer was "significantly negligent" but their conduct didn't go as far as to lead to a charge of criminal negligence causing death.

The Independent Investigations Office made its report public and its contents were widely reported in the media.

Court documents said Duhamel read about the case in the newspaper and contacted Independent Investigations Office to complain.

He then started legal action against the police watchdog.

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The case is unusual as Duhamel doesn't appear to have any connection to the officer involved, whose name was never made public, or the victim or perpetrator of the murder.

"In the present case (Duhamel) is neither an aggrieved person nor an affected person, nor has he suffered any prejudice as a result of the decision to publish, certainly not exceptional prejudice," BC Supreme Court Justice  Michael Tammen said in the decision.

Duhamel argued that the police watchdog should "stay in its lane" and only report facts about whether an officer's conduct was criminal and not whether it was a neglect of duty.

He made numerous legal arguments to back up his claim.

However, Justice Tammen said there was nothing wrong with the police watchdog commenting publicly about the overall conduct of an officer.

The Justice found Duhamel wasn't directly affected by the report and therefore lacked standing to take legal action.

"I would not characterize (Duhamel) in this case a 'busybody litigant' but, rather, as a well-intentioned member of the public. Nonetheless, (Duhamel) is wholly unconnected to the decision he seeks to judicially review and completely unaffected by it," the Justice said.

Ultimately, Duhamel had his case dismissed and was left paying costs.

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