A West Vancouver philanthropist who was acquitted in 2013 of charges that she brought a Tanzanian woman to Canada illegally then kept her as a “slave” inside her home is suing the RCMP and province’s director of civil forfeiture.
Mumtaz Ladha, 61, and her family filed a civil lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court Monday claiming they suffered both financial and emotional harm as a result of a negligent RCMP investigation into the case.
“I wouldn’t want it to happen to anybody, what my family has been through, financially and emotionally,” said Ladha, wiping away tears at a press conference held Monday to announce the lawsuit.
Ladha was found not guilty in November 2013 of four charges she faced under the Immigration and Refugee Act after a B.C. Supreme Court Justice concluded the complainant in the case likely made up the story of being treated like a “slave” to stay in Canada.
But for the Ladha family, the acquittal came after years of struggle to clear their names. Some of the damage to their reputations can never be undone, said lawyer David Martin at a press conference Monday morning.
“The slave narrative was repeated around the world,” he said.
“A good reputation is lost in an instant.”
Martin charged that instead of dispassionately investigating the case, the RCMP officer involved befriended the complainant and spent time patching holes in her evidence rather than seeking the truth.
Martin alleged the RCMP investigators ignored motives the complainant would have for lying and ignored “any reasonable standard of objectivity and independence” in their investigation.
After charges were laid, the RCMP held a press conference in which they presented a sensationalized version of events, according to the lawsuit, including the story about the woman being fed “table scraps” by the family.
Martin alleged documents obtained by the Ladha family show the investigation was tainted by the officers’ desire to get a human trafficking conviction they could show to U.S. authorities as evidence the RCMP was taking the issue seriously.
“The RCMP as a whole appears to have viewed this file as a public relations opportunity,” the Ladhas wrote in their lawsuit.
In addition to the harm to their reputation, the lawsuit details how the Ladhas had to pay $392,000 in legal fees to fight the criminal case and a further $160,000 to a lawyer to fight attempts by the province to seize their home through civil forfeiture.
As part of that process, the province froze the Ladha’s $5-million British Properties mansion, which meant she couldn’t use the equity in the home to finance her defence, said Martin. Martin said the director of civil forfeiture didn’t take steps to look into the RCMP’s investigation before going after the family home. In one document, the forfeiture office falsely accused one of Ladha’s daughters as also being criminally charged. That resulted in her being fired from an employment contract, said Martin.
Ladha said she later sold the house to pay her legal bills.
Before she was acquitted, Ladha endured included having her Royal Bank cancel her accounts and having her passport cancelled. She also received a death threat during the trial.
At the press conference Monday, Ladha said the experience was very hard for her family, who are well known in the Ismaili community.
Some of the family’s friends stuck by them and some didn’t know what to think, she said. “When it’s in the media, people tend to believe it.”
Neither the RCMP nor the province has responded to the suit yet or filed a statement of defence.
