Sister of Alberta man hit by speeding Mountie hopes fatality inquiry leads to lessons for RCMP

The sister of a northern Alberta man who was run over by a Mountie's speeding car in 2016 testified Thursday at a public fatality inquiry into his death.

Tracy Janvier, 41, was walking on Highway 881, near the hamlet of Anzac, south of Fort McMurray, in the early hours of the morning on Aug. 21, 2016, when he was struck by a car.

He was then run over by RCMP Const. Michelle Phillips, who was driving at about 155 kilometres per hour down the unlit highway responding to the scene. 

Phillips did not slow down, according to an agreed statement of facts, and she had heard from a dispatcher that the emergency had occurred farther down the road. Janvier died and another man sustained injuries to his left hand.

Phillips was found not guilty of dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm in 2019. Court of Queen's Bench Justice John McCarthy said at the time that the constable had erred, but "not to the degree required to attract penal consequences" and that he could not conclude the second collision significantly contributed to Janvier's death.

Testifying in an Alberta Court of Justice courtroom in Fort McMurray yesterday, Janvier's sister, Marina Nokohoo, said her brother was a loving, joyful person who cared for their parents. Multiple times during the hearing, Nokohoo expressed hope that the RCMP could learn from what happened seven years ago.

"My brother could not have died for absolutely no reason," she said.

"The RCMP does need to look at their training."

Cpl. Marcus Hirschfield, who works on the driver training program at the RCMP's academy in Regina, testified in court on Thursday.

He said driver training is continuously updated and cadets receive tools for critical thinking, rather than a list of situations and instructions to memorize.

"Cadets are taught to think about what they're doing and always have that guiding light of police and public safety as their priority," he said. 

A lawyer representing the RCMP said police would consider any recommendations put forward by the court and described the training program outlined by Hirschfield as comprehensive and robust.

Court heard on Wednesday that technology improvements, like new phone towers, allow police to pinpoint calls' location and changes to mapping technology are expected to improve location data.

Nokohoo said she hopes RCMP use her brother's death as a scenario during training.