Nunavut beats other territories for rate of in-custody deaths

Seven mandatory inquests investigating the circumstances around in-custody deaths have been held since 2001. Two other in-custody deaths have occurred in the same time period, but mandatory inquests have not yet been held. That brings the total of in custody deaths since 2001 to nine.

Nunavut residents are more than twice as likely to die in custody than in Canada’s two other territories.

And while data from Canadian provinces are not collected nationally, numbers gathered by Nunatsiaq News suggest rates of in-custody deaths in Nunavut are much higher than elsewhere in Canada.

In-custody deaths are fatalities of people under supervision by either police, correctional services or those detained under mental health legislation.

According to data from Nunavut’s chief coroner’s office, nine people died while in custody in Nunavut between 2001 and June 2016.

If you use the present-day population of Nunavut — 36,900 — that works out to be about 1.5 in-custody deaths per year per 100,000 people.

Statistics Canada doesn’t compile that data but when contacted by Nunatsiaq News, a representative suggested provincial and territorial coroner’s offices might keep track.

In total, coroner offices in four jurisdictions responded to our request: the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Ontario.

The NWT showed the second-highest rate of in-custody deaths per year per 100,000 people at 0.7.

But that rate stands at less than half of Nunavut’s rate.

In the Yukon, four in-custody deaths in the past sixteen years means a rate slightly lower than the NWT: 0.67 in-custody deaths per year per 100,000 people.

The rate of in-custody deaths in the two southern jurisdictions analyzed by Nunatsiaq News — Alberta and Ontario — were both far lower than in the territories.

Ontario’s rate of in-custody deaths over 15 years ending in 2015 stood at 0.2 deaths per year per 100,000 people, while Alberta’s rate, calculated for 13 years ending in 2013, was even lower at 0.17.

That means Nunavut’s rate of in-custody deaths, per capita, is about eight times higher than what exists in Ontario or Alberta.

Nunavut’s coroner, who is currently on holiday, was unable to provide a breakdown of which government agency had responsibility over the nine deceased individuals at the time of their death.

But we know at least six of those nine deaths in Nunavut took place under RCMP supervision, based on past Nunatsiaq News stories.

The latest in-custody death in Nunavut occurred in May at the Cape Dorset RCMP detachment when police said they “found” Adla Pudlat, 29, “unresponsive in a holding cell.”

A mandatory coroner’s inquest — held whenever an in-custody death is reported in any Canadian jurisdiction — has not yet been scheduled for Pudlat’s death.

Nunavut’s coroner Padma Suramala presided over an inquest in Hall Beach earlier this year involving the death of Tommy Anguilianuk.

The jury of that inquest found Anguilianuk, 18, died by suicide after tricking a civilian guard and escaping from the local RCMP detachment.

And Suramala is scheduled to preside over another inquest later this year involving another in-custody death.

That inquest will look at the circumstances surrounding the 2012 police shooting of Felix Taqqaugaq, 29, in Igloolik.

A 2014 inquest in Igloolik focused on the 2012 death of another Igloolik resident, Solomon Uyarasuk, in the local detachment.

The jury of that inquest made a number of recommendations aimed at the lack of cultural training RCMP receive before working in Nunavut.

The jury also recommended that the RCMP investigate the possibility of placing intoxicated individuals in a detox facility rather than locking them up in a cell.

It is unclear if Nunavut RCMP have considered this recommendation.