Nunavut RCMP responds to coroner’s recommendations

RCMP Supt. Howard Eaton speaks with reporters in Iqaluit during a news conference April 15. Eaton said RCMP in Nunavut have changed the way they handle prisoners they receive from the hospital, in the wake of the August, 2009 death of Elisapee Michael. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

(updated April 19, 3:15 p.m.)

Nunavut’s RCMP division says it has already made changes in the way it handles drunken prisoners, after the Elisapee Michael coroner’s inquest jury last week aimed nine of its 29 recommendations at the police.

RCMP Supt. Howard Eaton told reporters April 15 that some of the recommendations, like the one urging that cameras record occupied cells at all times, will raise policing costs, which will have to be negotiated with the Government of Nunavut.

And others, like the recommendation that drunk prisoners be roused every two hours, “are going to create some issues in the small detachments,” Eaton said.

“We‘re trying to figure how we’re going to do it,” he said.

In two-officer detachments, police often get a late-night call, arrest a suspect and then return home to sleep until their shift begins again in the morning, Eaton said.

Michael spent more than 12 hours lying on the floor of a cell in the old Iqaluit RCMP detachment, which has since been replaced, on the night in August, 2009when she fell down stairs in front of the Nova Hotel, injuring her head.

Despite the head injury, she was taken into police custody after becoming difficult with hospital staff.

But she was taken back to the hospital when an RCMP member saw Michael lying on the concrete cell floor in the fetal position, a sign of a head injury.

Eatons acknowledged the police could have done a better job taking care of Michael that night, but he said police arrest thousands of people every month across the country with relatively few incidents.

“Our record is pretty good on its face [but] obviously one is too many.”

Eaton said Nunavut RCMP commissioned an independent review of their prisoner practices shortly after the incident.

That report came back with 10 recommendations, which Eaton said the force has already implemented.

The recommendations urged police to develop procedures for arresting hospital patients, collecting information from health care workers, check intoxicated prisoners more often and tighten up training for guards and log keeping practices.

Those match closely some of the recommendations made by the six-person Michael jury.

Another, that police get round-the-clock access to Inuktitut interpreters, is “more or less” in place in Iqaluit now, Eaton said.

“We’re going to be a lot more conscientious of why the person ended up in hospital in the first place, so that we understand the full background of what happened to them before they come into our care,” he said.

Patients will need to be cleared by a doctor before they’re taken into police custody, he said, adding many hospitals are starting to add secure areas to look after patients in trouble with the law.

That was also a recommendation aimed at Qikiqtani General Hospital.

“A police cell is not a place for people who have a medical issue,” Eaton said.

The City of Iqaluit responded last week to the jury’s recommendations, saying it’s establishing better information sharing practices for paramedics and hired a new building inspector several months ago.

The Department of Health and Social Services, the target of 16 of the 29 recommendations, issued a statement April 19 saying it “deeply regrets the tragedy of Elisapee Michael’s death.” The department said it’s reviewing the recommendations.