RCMP investigating New Year’s Day death in Iqaluit jail

The RCMP is investigating a death in an Iqaluit jail, according to Nunavut’s Justice Department.

Just after 6 a.m. on Jan. 1, staff members at an Iqaluit corrections facility went into a cell to try to wake up an inmate.

After several attempts with no response, the staff called an ambulance and the person was transported to the hospital and declared dead, according to an incident report obtained by Nunatsiaq News through an access to information request.

The report is heavily redacted, concealing the identities of the inmate, staff members and the name of the facility.

The incident is classified as “medical emergency.”

After the death, RCMP searched the inmate’s cell, and a health care nurse “assessed” other inmates, while nurses offered support to both the inmates and staff, the report said.

The government made no public statements about the incident to “protect the privacy of those involved and to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigations,” Stephen Shaddock, the Justice Department’s director of policy and planning, wrote in an email Tuesday.

The matter is now under a police investigation, as well as an internal workplace one, Shaddock said. 

All deaths in correction facilities are also subject to a mandatory coroner’s inquest. But the office hasn’t announced when that will be yet, Shaddock said.

The Office of the Chief Coroner didn’t respond to a request for comment and Nunavut RCMP declined to provide further details.

The Justice Department also developed an action plan for implementing changes for its corrections services. It lists 34 “current issues” in operations, training, policy and healthcare.

Most of the issues are redacted, but the visible ones include staff vacancies, a lack of training, and old policies that “may not be up to date with current standards/best practices.”