Facts in dispute, questions remain after Nunavut inquest ends

A coroner’s jury looking into the circumstances around the 2012 death of Solomon Uyarasuk in Igloolik, above, had to weigh conflicting testimony from different witnesses. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

When an official hearing that involves testimony from multiple witnesses wraps up — like the recently concluded coroner’s inquest examining the death of Igloolik artist Solomon Uyarasuk — conflicting accounts of the same events emerge, causing some confusion.

Scientists and researchers have come to understand that human memory is flawed — two people who witness the same event will recall and forget different details, especially when asked to testify years after the event.

Courts and judges are well aware of this and must gauge how credible a witness is and use multiple witnesses to corroborate evidence.

For example, members of the coroner’s inquest jury, who just completed their deliberations in Igloolik Nov. 28, heard conflicting testimony about the clothing Uyarasuk wore at the time of his arrest in Sept. 2012.

Uyarasuk died in his prison cell about an hour after his arrest, the coroner’s jury ruled, of “asphyxiated hanging,” around 6:30 a.m.

Especially relevant is testimony relating to the pants and belt police say Uyarasuk was wearing — photographed and entered into evidence at the inquest by the external Ottawa Police investigation, conducted immediately after Uyarasuk’s death.

The pants in the photograph appeared to be full-length blue jeans with elastic cuffs around the ankles, stained with blood on the front and back.

According to the Ottawa Police Service, the pants were found in Uyarasuk’s cell, bunched up in the far corner, after Uyarasuk was pronounced dead. There are no video cameras in the cell so it’s unclear how they got there.

Mark Mossey, Uyarasuk’s family lawyer, focused on inconsistent evidence and testimony relating to those pants.

While questioning David Nutarakittuq — Uyarasuk’s neighbour who called in a noise complaint around 5 a.m. Sept. 23, 2012 — Mossey asked what pants Uyarasuk was wearing when Nutarakittuq watched through his living room window as Uyarasuk was taken away by police.

Nutarakittuq said Uyarasuk wore long shorts that went past his knees, adding that Uyarasuk was shirtless and shoeless.

When Nutarakittuq was shown the picture of the blue jeans found in Uyarasuk’s cell, he said “those aren’t the pants he was wearing.”

Phillip Qanatsiaq, Uyarasuk’s friend, who was with him in the apartment at the time of the arrest, also said the pants Uyarasuk wore that night were long shorts.

He, too, said the pants photographed in Uyarasuk’s cell were not the ones Uyarasuk wore as he left the apartment with police.

Qanatsiaq also testified that Uyarasuk left his apartment that night, one officer on either side, wearing no shirt and no shoes.

Neither Nutarakittuq nor Qanatsiaq remember if Uyarasuk was wearing a belt at the time.

RCMP Sgt. Greg Murphy, one of the two officers who arrested Uyarasuk, testified at the inquest that although he couldn’t remember what pants Uyarasuk wore at the time of his arrest, Murphy remembered that they weren’t blue jeans.

But ultimately, investigators from the RCMP and the Ottawa Police Service accepted that the blue jeans found in Uyarasuk’s cell, and photographed as evidence, were the ones that he wore on the night of his arrest.

And both Murphy and his on-duty partner that night, Const. Martin Noel, testified that they didn’t notice Uyarasuk’s belt until after taking his handcuffs off and in the act of pinning Uyarasuk to the cell floor in the Igloolik detachment.

To further confuse matters, a health centre nurse, Shane Calder, added conflicting testimony. Calder, the on duty nurse at the time of Uyarasuk’s detention, said Murphy called to request Calder attend to Uyarasuk’s wounds in the cell at the detachment.

Calder testified that Murphy told him officers had stripped Uyarasuk of everything except for his belt and a ring on his finger, which they couldn’t get off, Calder said.

No other testimony during the inquest, however, corroborated Calder’s story.

As a final example of conflicting memory during the inquest, Calder, according to multiple witnesses, found the cutting utensil used to cut the belt from Uyarasuk’s neck, after he was discovered hanging from the meal-slot latch.

Both Murphy and Noel testified that Calder found a black-handled serrated knife, which was photographed by Ottawa police on the floor of the Igloolik detachment and entered into evidence.

Calder, however, testified that he found a pair of scissors.

The inquest wrapped up in Igloolik Nov. 28 after hearing testimony from 10 witnesses. The coroner’s jury ruled that Uyarasuk’s death is “undetermined”— meaning there is not enough evidence to categorize it as anything else, such as a homicide or a suicide.

The jury made nine recommendations in the hopes of avoiding similar deaths in the future and directed them to various federal and territorial agencies including the RCMP. One recommendation is that the RCMP re-open the investigation into Uyarasuk’s death.

While the RCMP say they are reviewing and responding to the jury’s recommendations, they have made no promise to re-open the case.