Our associate Colton Winiarski recently secured a significant win at the Supreme Court of British Columbia on his application to strike a plaintiff’s Notice of Civil Claim (NOCC) against the RCMP in Imani v. Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2026 BCSC 577.

View the Reasons for Judgment.

What was the case about?

The plaintiff filed a Notice of Civil Claim (NOCC) alleging that RCMP officers prepared false reports portraying him as hostile, dangerous, and aggressive. He claimed these reports negatively impacted his reputation and posed a risk for any future interactions with police.

He felt wronged after contacting the RCMP to file a report, believing officers “turned against [him]” during the interaction. He alleged negligence, misfeasance, Charter breaches (ss. 7 and 15), defamation, a breach of the RCMP Act, and Criminal Code violations. After filing his NOCC, he tried to submit additional documents, but the Registry rejected them as pleadings.

Colton challenged the NOCC on two grounds under Rule 9-5(1), first by arguing that the NOCC failed to plead the material facts to support his claims or allege all the elements of the various proposed causes of action, and second by arguing that the claims were bound to fail.

The Court’s decision

The court accepted both arguments and, crucially, Colton also convinced the court not to grant the plaintiff leave to amend (at para. 67). Often, courts give people a second chance to fix their paperwork, but in this case, the judge ruled the claims themselves were fundamentally deficient and incurable — meaning no amount of rewriting could make them valid legal arguments.

Why This Matters

This result reinforces the high bar for suing public institutions and ensures deficient claims—without a solid legal or factual basis—don’t take up valuable court time.

Congratulations, Colton, on an excellent result for our client!