Yukon deaths prompt complaints about RCMP

The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association has filed two complaints to an RCMP watchdog agency about the recent deaths of two Yukon men who had been in police custody.

The civil liberties group said Tuesday that it filed a complaint with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, a national police watchdog agency, against the Whitehorse RCMP officers who were involved in the 2008 death of Raymond Silverfox.

Silverfox, a 43-year-old First Nations man from Carmacks, Yukon, died on Dec. 2, 2008, after he had spent 13 hours at the Whitehorse RCMP detachment's drunk tank.

A coroner's inquest in April learned that RCMP members and detachment guards on duty that day did not seek medical attention for Silverfox, even though he had vomited 26 times in his cell.

Some members and guards even ridiculed and mocked Silverfox while he lay in a pool of his own vomit and excrement, the inquest heard. Silverfox was eventually taken to hospital, where he died of acute pneumonia.

Code of conduct investigations

Silverfox's family has challenged the results of a coroner's inquest, which concluded that he had died of natural causes. The family has also been calling for a public inquiry into Silverfox's death.

Last month, the Yukon RCMP announced that five officers would face code of conduct investigations in connection with Silverfox's death.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association's complaint asks the commission to make public the facts of those investigations, as well as any subsequent disciplinary actions.

"We think that it's very important that if people have made mistakes, that they're held accountable for it and that we know what the mistakes were," David Eby, the association's executive director, told CBC News on Tuesday.

Eby said it's also important that if behaviour beyond "just simple negligence" was involved, "that people are held accountable for their misconduct."

The association has also filed a complaint with the commission against Whitehorse RCMP members who were involved in the death of Robert Stone, 34, on May 2.

Stone, who had been picked up for being intoxicated, was held in RCMP custody for seven hours before he was transferred to Whitehorse General Hospital and then to a Whitehorse detoxification centre, where he died.

The group says it is not clear why Stone was transferred from the hospital to the detox centre. Stone's family has also filed a complaint with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP over his death.

Intoxication a medical issue: group

In the deaths of both Silverfox and Stone, the association says it questions what it calls "an apparent RCMP policy to keep in jail cells people who are suffering from acute intoxication and in need of medical attention."

"Acute intoxication is a serious medical issue. In most circumstances that should be addressed first and law enforcement concerns second," association president Rob Holmes stated in a release.

"An inquiry is needed to determine whether those suffering from severe intoxication should be kept in police cells instead of in hospital in the care of medically trained staff, and what policies should be in place to guide police, medical personnel and others."

Holmes said "far too many cell deaths involve cases of acute intoxication from drugs and alcohol," and a public inquiry would find solutions to the problem.

Following Stone's death, the Yukon government created a task force to examine how acutely intoxicated people are cared for in the territory.

The territorial government also launched a review of RCMP policing in the Yukon, after details of Silverfox's death became public at the coroner's inquest.

Eby said the coroner's inquest failed to answer key questions about Silverfox's death, particularly about the conduct of the RCMP while he was in custody.