{"id":159751,"date":"2023-06-12T15:11:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T19:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=159751"},"modified":"2023-06-12T15:11:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T19:11:03","slug":"mikmaw-led-inquiry-requested-by-families-after-recent-deaths-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/mikmaw-led-inquiry-requested-by-families-after-recent-deaths-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Mi\u2019kmaw-led inquiry requested by families after recent deaths in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Marchers began their walk Tuesday afternoon from the Peace and Friendship Park to Halifax Central Library to commemorate the lives of Peter Paul, Sarah Rose Denny, Chantel Moore, Skyler Sappier and Gladys Marie Simon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The marchers are calling for a Mi\u2019kmaw-led fatality inquiry and a justice reform after the recent deaths of Paul and Denny while in provincial custody.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paul, 27, was a Two-Spirited individual from Eskasoni First Nation who died by suicide in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility in January.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paul\u2019s brother, Gilbert Paul, spoke at the march about his brother\u2019s death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe want a Mi\u2019kmaw-led fatality inquiry and we want it now,\u201d Gilbert says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Paul was picked up by police a year prior to his death and told officers he was having suicidal thoughts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn a heavily monitored setting, how was he able to take a sheet, wrap it around his neck and commit suicide?\u201d Gilbert says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Denny, 36, from Eskasoni First Nations died from complications from pneumonia in March. Denny was transferred to the hospital from Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside after coughing up blood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Denny\u2019s mother, Katherine Noel Denny, spoke at the march about her daughter not receiving medical attention while at the Burnside jail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI want an inquiry. Why did my daughter die? Why was she denied a doctor?\u201d Katherine says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Denny\u2019s mother says she wasn\u2019t taken to the hospital until she was unresponsive, although she says she still doesn\u2019t know exactly what happened to her daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI don\u2019t even know if they took her blood pressure or her temperature,\u201d Katherine says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prisoner Advocacy and Transformational Hub organized the march and are asking for a public inquiry and systemic reforms that prioritize the safety of Indigenous Peoples.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The family of Skyler Sappier who died in Saint John Regional Correctional Centre from COVID-19 in January 2022 filed an inquest into his death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raeann Michaud, the sister of Skyler Sappier says he was not receiving the medical attention he should have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEven though his oxygen levels kept dropping, even though he was complaining of chest pains they still didn\u2019t send him to the hospital,\u201d Michaud says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>An internal investigation reviewed footage of Sappier while in the medical unit of the jail. A correctional officer claimed to check on Sappier 10 times throughout the night, Michaud says. But the investigation revealed the officer only checked on him eight times and most of the checks didn\u2019t involve any verbal communication with Sappier.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c[The investigator] could tell from the video\u2014with no sound\u2014that my brother was unwell,\u201d Michaud says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sappier\u2019s family was disappointed by the inquest and say more policies should be put in place to ensure inmates are brought to a hospital before it's too late.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cHe deserved a chance to fight this, not sit in a cell probably knowing that he was dying,\u201d Michaud says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marchers began their walk Tuesday afternoon from the Peace and Friendship Park to Halifax Central Library to commemorate the lives of Peter Paul, Sarah Rose Denny, Chantel Moore, Skyler Sappier and Gladys Marie Simon.\u00a0 The marchers are calling for a Mi\u2019kmaw-led fatality inquiry and a justice reform after the recent deaths of Paul and Denny&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":159760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,16830,3265],"tags":[26990,26991,26985,25780,26986,26984,26987,26988,27010],"radio":[13058],"origine":[274,300,278],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159751"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159998,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159751\/revisions\/159998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159751"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=159751"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=159751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}