Four government agencies and the family of Celine Samuel will participate in an inquest into the 44-year-old’s February 2020 death in Thompson RCMP cells, the judge overseeing the proceedings ruled April 12.
The RCMP, the City of Thompson Fire & Emergency Services, Shared Health and the Northern Regional Health Authority as well as Samuel’s family were all granted full status as participants in the inquest by provincial court Judge Todd Rambow, who will retain conduct of the matter despite having recently been transferred from Thompson provincial court to The Pas.
The five groups were the only ones who applied for standing at the inquest.
As participants, they will have the right to make opening and closing statements, call and cross-examine witnesses and present arguments and submissions during the non-adversarial proceeding, which is not intended to lay blame for Samuel’s death but to examine whether or how similar deaths can be prevented in the future.Under Manitoba’s Fatality Inquiries Act, an inquest must be called if a person was in custody of a peace officer when they died.
Samuel died Feb. 1, 2020, a little more than three hours after being placed in one of the Thompson RCMP detachment’s drunk tanks.
She was lodged in a cell around 8:15 p.m. and observed to be conscious and breathing at 10:49 p.m. Less than 20 minutes later, she was found unresponsive and RCMP and then paramedics attempted to resuscitate her. She was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m.
Prisoners lodged at the Thompson RCMP detachment are supposed to be physically checked every 15 minutes and those in the drunk tanks are woken up every four hours to assess their condition.
The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba, which examines serious incidents involving on- and off-duty police officers in the province, said Samuel’s cause of death was a combination of acute alcohol intoxication and a subdural hematoma – a collection of blood outside the brain, usually caused by a head injury.
Video footage from McDonald’s, where Samuel was detained for public intoxication under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act, showed her falling off a stool twice and appearing to strike her head on the floor, the IIU said. The woman was medically assessed by Thompson Fire & Emergency Services paramedics prior to being placed in cells.
Prior to Samuel’s death, it had been 12 years since someone died while in Thompson RCMP custody. Since her death, another person has died while in Thompson RCMP custody – a man detained for intoxication Sept. 13, 2021 who died the next day at Thompson General Hospital.
No date for the inquest has been set and it may take some time to co-ordinate availability due to the judge’s need to travel to Thompson, though he would like it to happen sooner rather than later.
“I want to get this matter moving as quickly as I can,” Rambow said at the April 12 standing hearing.
The inquest is expected to run for at least five days.
