Grand chief demands public inquiry into in-custody deaths following CBC investigation
CBC
A Manitoba First Nations leader is demanding a public inquiry into the deaths of Indigenous people in custody, following a CBC investigation into dozens of deaths in Canadian jail cells since 2010.
The investigation chronicled 61 cases of people who had died in custody after being arrested related to intoxication. Nearly half were Indigenous.
"If people aren't alarmed about that, they should be," said Arlen Dumas, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.
"It seems to be that this is a common occurrence, and it's unacceptable."
A national inquiry is needed to investigate all deaths in custody — not just those that occur in police custody, but also in federal prisons and provincial jails, Dumas says.
Wayne Okemow, whose niece died after being held in a northern Manitoba RCMP detachment, joined Dumas's call for an inquiry.
He says accountability is needed for what happened to his niece, Tracy Okemow.
The 31-year-old woman died in 2012, after being detained in the Gods Lake Narrows RCMP detachment for nine hours.
She was medically cleared to spend the night in a jail cell, despite evidence she had taken too many pills. Guards told investigators she could be heard moaning in pain all night. She was transported by medevac to Winnipeg but died the next day.
No inquest was held into her death.
Prior to 2017, an inquest was mandatory in Manitoba any time someone died in police custody.
Those inquests, called by the chief medical examiner and presided over by a provincial court judge, do not assign blame, but look at how the death could have been prevented.
But 2017 changes to Manitoba's Fatality Inquiries Act gave the chief medical examiner some discretion on when to call an inquest.
A lawyer who has represented multiple Manitoba families in such inquests says there should never be an exception when someone dies in police custody.
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