THUNDER BAY -- A coroner’s jury has called on the federal government to provide equal funding to First Nations policing.
The coroner's inquest examined the circumstances surrounding 23-year-old Lena Anderon's 2013 suicide. The Kasabonika woman died in February of that year, an apparent suicide in the back of a police cruiser she was left in for less than 20 minutes.
Six days after the inquest into her death began, jurors on Thursday in Thunder Bay brought forward 28 recommendations. Among them was a recommendation to ensure policing standards and service levels in First Nations communities policed by Nishnawbe Aski Police Service are identical to those in non-First Nation communities in Ontario.
Throughout the inquest the jury heard repeatedly the Kasabonika Lake detachment does not meet building standards, and they do not have enough officers to do a proper job.
The jury also recommended the federal government should provide adequate and sustainable funding to ensure NAPS has backup officers at all times in every remote community, policy support to ensure officers have access to a communication dispatch centre, and funding for maintenance and upkeep of those buildings.
Following the inquest counsel Mike Maher said the recommendations brought forward by the jury were powerful, despite leaving slightly disappointed.
“I’m personally disappointed that it’s not backed up by any recommendations to the legislature to implement legislation in any sort of timeline,” Maher said during an interview.
“Nor did they include our secondary joint slate recommendation, which was to include the ombudsperson in the process, and to sort of at least assist the chief coroner’s office in having those recommendations be backed by some level of enforceability or accountability.”
Maher added that counsel put forward recommendations, which had previously been called for in an inquest from 2009.
“Lena Anderson didn’t have to die, if we had full implementation of coroner’s inquest recommendations before then we wouldn’t be here today,” Maher said.
