VANCOUVER — A West Vancouver woman acquitted of human trafficking charges is taking the B.C. and federal governments to court.
Mumtaz Ladha is suing the RCMP and B.C.'s director of civil forfeiture, saying her reputation and finances have suffered as a result of what she says was a wrongful criminal prosecution.
Ladha was accused of enslaving a Tanzanian woman who worked as a maid in her multimillion-dollar home, and some of her assets were frozen.
Ladha was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in November 2013 after a B.C. Supreme Court judge concluded the complainant's allegations were improbable.
Her lawyer, David Martin, alleges the RCMP were negligent and misleading in their investigation.
He says the charges may have been politically motivated, pointing to leaked U.S. government documents that indicate the United States was considering downgrading Canada on its human trafficking performance scale.
