It’s been more than a year since Kevin Carle last spoke to his younger sister Krista.
“She said I’ll call you tomorrow, and tomorrow never came,” said Kevin, a retired Royal Canadian Navy Captain and executor of his sister’s estate.
In July 2018, Krista Carle, a former Nanaimo RCMP officer, committed suicide after a battle with PTSD from years of harassment in the RCMP.
Now her family, including her two young adult children, are being dealt another blow.
In early 2018 Carle submitted a claim for compensation from a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women who were harassed while working for the RCMP. But when she died six months later, her claim still hadn’t been processed.
In a letter to her family, the assessor, Michel Bastarache, says since Carle’s claim had not been assigned for review at the time of her death, her file is now considered closed. That means her children won’t see a cent from the lawsuit she helped create and raise awareness for.
“Krista worked very hard to raise the visibility of that so that other victims would feel comfortable coming forward and putting their claim in, to experience some degree of justice, whatever that might be for them,” said Kevin.
The man who is in charge of the settlement payout says his team couldn’t have possibly processed the claims any faster — they did receive more than three times the number they were expecting. Since Krista’s death, the organization has added more assessors to help work through all of the claims.
But Krista family isn’t ready to give up without a fight. They are pleading with the federal government to get involved, not just for the money but for her legacy as a woman who fought to the end for change.
April Lawrence
