A Montreal man who watched his wife freeze to death after the couple became lost during a British Columbia ski holiday is suing the RCMP and two other parties for failing to initiate a search-and-rescue operation.
Gilles Blackburn is suing for negligence, and said he has suffered physically and psychologically from the wilderness ordeal.
Mr. Blackburn and his wife, Marie-Josée Fortin, were missing for about nine days while on a ski trip in February at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort near Golden, B.C.
Mr. Blackburn's numerous SOS distress signals in the snow went unheeded, the lawsuit says.
Ms. Fortin died of hypothermia after seven days; Mr. Blackburn was rescued by a passing helicopter two days later, and subsequently lost parts of both his feet, according to the suit.
The statement of claim says Mr. Blackburn stamped SOS signals in different locations with his skis, to no avail.
"SOS is as pretty clear a cry for help as you can get. Yet no search was initiated," Mr. Blackburn's lawyer, Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, said.
"They cried out for help and the people charged with the obligation of search and rescue did nothing."
The lawsuit's statement of claim, filed in B.C. Supreme Court, also names Golden's Search and Rescue and the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.
The couple skied from the top of a ski lift known as the Stairway to Heaven within the limits of the Kicking Horse Resort, and got lost after heading into an out-of-bounds area known as Canyon Creek.
About two days later, staff of Purcell Helicopter Skiing Ltd. saw Mr. Blackburn's SOS signals and alerted Kicking Horse, the suit alleges. The resort then tipped local search-and-rescue officials.
A few days after that, helicopter staff told the RCMP about SOS signals and the Mounties passed the information to search-and-rescue.
Ultimately, the RCMP, search-and-rescue officials and the ski resort all failed to act, the suit says.
The three parties, "all equipped with the knowledge of the SOS signals … negligently failed to initiate or conduct a search for the plaintiff or Ms. Fortin or otherwise properly investigate the source and significance of the SOS signals," the suit says.
Mr. Blackburn and his two children also filed a wrongful death lawsuit. It cites loss of support, care and companionship for the family of Ms. Fortin, a 44-year-old nurse.
Mr. Blackburn, the suit says, still suffers nervous shock, depression, nightmares and anxiety, and requires ongoing medical care. He is seeking unspecified damages.
Mr. Blackburn initiated the legal proceedings so that others wouldn't suffer the same fate, Ms. Wilhelm-Morden said, adding that lawsuits alleging failure to initiate a search are rare.
"The communications loop was not closed, so the organizations that ought to have known and done something weren't speaking to one another. That's why this tragedy happened."
The couple set out with only two granola bars, and had to ward off bone-chilling cold and wind, as well as wolves.
None of the three parties named in the suit would comment on it Friday. The RCMP, who have publicly admitted that the search for the Quebec skiers should have started sooner, have launched an internal investigation.
The findings are expected to be completed in a few weeks but no release date has been set.