CRANE COLLAPSE: RCMP win fight against Stemmer Construction over seized data

The RCMP is allowed to keep three laptops and the data they contain about the July 12, 2021, crane collapse in Kelowna that killed five workers.

The RCMP's court application to keep the material longer than the year allowed under law was opposed by Stemmer Construction Ltd., the Salmon Arm-based company that ran the crane. Two of the owner’s sons died in the tragedy.

Soon after the crane collapse, the RCMP obtained a number of search warrants that netted, amongst other things, three laptops.

“The (laptops) were provided to the RCMP by employees of (Stemmer Construction) very shortly after the investigation commenced,” states a Supreme Court of B.C. ruling issued Aug. 18 and updated Aug. 23. “They were then searched, pursuant to a warrant.”

READ MORE: A year on, still no answers for 5 families in deadly Kelowna crane collapse

The respondent in this case, Stemmer Construction, opposed the police application to keep the laptops and the data they contained for another year, arguing the data is being "unlawfully" held and asserting a "legal defence" to the RCMP application.

At issue were a number of technical matters about the date and correctness of applications filed and whether the data on the laptops – which police had copied – could be classified as “things.”

In the end, the judge ruled the police could keep the laptops and the data they contained for another year, until July 12, 2023.

“In reaching this conclusion, I have also considered, but ultimately rejected, the argument that the investigators here have been 'negligent or dilatory' by breaching their reporting obligations,” Justice Briana Hardwick ruled.

Some of the material in the court ruling, such as the nature of the search warrants, has been sealed from public view.

The crane collapse at a downtown Kelowna highrise construction site claimed the lives of four construction workers — Cailen Vilness, Erick and Patrick Stemmer and Jared Zook — along with Brad Zawislak who was killed inside a neighbouring building where he was working.

The police investigation is ongoing, as is another investigation by WorkSafeBC.

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