A man accused of attempting to murder RCMP officers with an axe has filed lawsuits against the police, federal prosecutors and the Yukon Department of Justice.
In Supreme Court documents he wrote by hand, Mark McDiarmid claims he is being imprisoned on “false charges.”
Police shot the 34-year-old October 2011. A subsequent investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team found that the police acted in self-defense when they shot McDiarmid twice after he came at them with an axe.
In the lawsuit filed last week, McDiarmid claims that’s not what happened.
He describes being shot from a distance of more than 20 feet while not approaching the RCMP. He claims, “One then stood over me and shot me a third time.”
McDiarmid wants the police to pay for his legal costs, medical costs, and damages.
In the other lawsuits, McDiarmid claims prosecutors are not giving him the information he needs for his defence. He is suing the government claiming that he and his family were harassed and threatened for two years and no one stepped in. It is not clear from the documents who McDiarmid is claiming harassed him.
The Dawson City woodcutter went on a hunger strike in late 2012, about a year after his arrest, to protest jail conditions. He consumed only liquids for 158 days. In the end a Supreme Court justice granted the government the right to intervene, but McDiarmid chose to comply and began eating again.
He has been representing himself throughout all his court appearances.
This latest case will be back in court Dec. 17.