THUNDER BAY – A joint inquest into the deaths of two Indigenous men who died while in the custody of the Thunder Bay Police Service is scheduled to take place early next month.
Regional Supervising Coroner for the Northwest Region, Dr. Michael Wilson, announced on Wednesday that an inquest into the deaths of Donald Mamakwa and Roland McKay will open in Thunder Bay on Oct. 11.
Under the Coroners Act, an inquest is mandatory because the two men died while in police custody. The inquest is scheduled to take place over 17 days, and 31 witnesses are expected to testify. Dr. David Cameron will be the presiding officer, with Peter Keen and Kate Forget serving as inquest counsel.
The inquest will examine the circumstances surrounding the deaths, and the jury may make recommendations to prevent future incidents from happening.
Mamakwa, 44, of Kasabonika First Nation, died on Aug. 3, 2014 while in custody at the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters, shortly after being found in medical distress.
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) launched an investigation but found no grounds to charge any of the involved officers.
Its report did note there were problems with how Mamakwa was treated while in police custody, including officers failing to tell paramedics that he was having difficulty breathing, and officers not taking him to the hospital again upon his request because of breathing difficulties, saying paramedics had already cleared him.
McKay, 50, of Big Trout Lake, died on July 20, 2017 while in Thunder Bay Police Service custody. He was found intoxicated and unconscious the evening of July 19 behind a Fort William Road business.
McKay was cleared by paramedics and transported to the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters where he was placed in a holding a cell. A few hours later, McKay was found not breathing and CPR was administered. He was transported to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre where he was pronounced dead.
The SIU was called in to investigate and found there were no grounds to charge any of the involved officers, concluding police were acting lawfully within their duties.
Legal counsel representing the Thunder Bay Police Service filed a motion requesting video surveillance footage from inside the Balmoral Street police headquarters on the same night of Mamakwa’s arrest be excluded from the inquest into his death.
The video shows officers allegedly dragging another Indigenous man by his feet into a cell.
Counsel for the families of Mamakwa and McKay argued the video should be included in the inquest, saying it could assist a jury on how to address biases, racism, and stereotyping of Indigenous people by police.
In March 2022, Cameron denied the request to block the video from the inquest, ruling it represents relevant and material evidence to the inquest jury.
The inquest into Mamakwa's death was originally scheduled to be held in June 2019 but several motions, including the one filed by the Thunder Bay Police Service to exclude the surveillance video and later the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several delays.
