The family of Nadine Machiskinic and supporters are calling on the Ministry of Justice to involve civilian oversight in death investigations.
“Consistently throughout this time period there have been a call out for civilian oversight,” Machiskinic family supporter Michelle Stewart said. “Saskatchewan does not have civilian oversight and is the only province without civilian oversight, and I think it’s long overdue. I call on the Ministry of Justice to bring this forward.”
This call comes after Regina police asked the RCMP to conduct an independent review of how the police service handled the investigation into Machiskinic’s death. That review was made public last week, and showed the investigation did not meet professional investigative standards.
Machiskinic was found injured at the bottom of a laundry chute at Regina's Delta Hotel in January 2015. She later died in hospital. Her death was ruled accidental by police. A coroner’s inquest changed that ruling to undetermined.
Regina police spoke to the media for the first time since the release of the report. Chief Evan Bray said he believes investigators followed the investigative process.
“I think this case really provided some challenges for us,” Bray said. “We talk often about being notified two days after it occurred and it provided some challenges on how we typically do investigations. The investigators did follow through the investigative process.”
Bray added that there was no legislation forcing them to release the report, but that they did so at the request of the family. He said officers and investigators were not reprimanded for the flaws in the investigation.
“We hold our investigations in high standard and we talk about the positive outcomes,” Bray said. I stand behind our investigations. I think we have to address each investigation on its own merit. Race didn’t play a factor in this. The independent review looked at this.”
Machiskinic’s aunt, Delores Stevenson, spoke to the media this morning, alleging systemic racism in the justice system.
“There was already stereotypes and assumptions being made throughout the investigation,” Stevenson said. “Her stuff was thrown out and discarded. Is that what her life meant to the people involved in the investigation? Systemic racism is very much a big part of this.”
Supporters of the Machiskinic family voiced concern for other death investigations conducted by RPS. Richelle Dubois echoed the concern of the victims family.
“The report leaves a lot of questions with other cases, and I think there are a lot of similarities with Nadine’s case and my son’s case and how the police investigated and how the professional standards were not up to code,” she said.
Dubois found her son, Haven, deceased in the Pilot Butte Creek in east Regina in May 2015. Since his death, she has been questioning the investigation of the Regina police and the coroner’s report, saying there were mistakes made.
The Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism hopes others with concerns around their loved ones death investigation to come forward.
