Chiefs say RCMP, Health Canada negligent in woman's death

Northern Manitoba First Nationsleaders are accusing RCMP and Health Canada of being negligent in their handling of a Gods Lake Narrows woman who died in custody.

Tracy Okemow, 31, died in hospital in Winnipeg on Nov. 30.

Gods Lake First Nation leaders say witnesses have told them that RCMP officers ignored Okemow's pleas for help from her jail cell and ordered her to "stop faking" her condition.

"The evidence is abundantly clear that RCMP contributed to her death," band Coun. Hubert Watt stated in a release Thursday.

RCMP confirmed that officers in Gods Lake Narrows received a medical call shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 28.

Officers took a woman to the Gods Lake nursing station, where she was examined. She waslater transported tothe localRCMP detachment and lodged in a holding cell under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act.

Police say at around 9 a.m. on Nov. 29, the woman complained of feeling unwell. Okemow was taken back to the nursing station and then airliftedto Winnipeg, where she died the next day.

The First Nation released a transcript of an interview it conducted with Hank Ross, a fellow prisoner who said he heard Okemow in her cell.

"I could hear her all night [...] she was in pain. The cops told her to 'sleep it off, you're just faking, you're not going anywhere,'" Ross said in his statement.

"All that time she was in the cell," he added. "She was moaning, couldn't [breathe]. She said, 'I'm short of breath.'"

Ross told the First Nation that Okemow was up all night, but the RCMP officer was "giving attitude to Tracy because of all the noise she was making."

Group wants independent probe

In a statement issued late Thursday, Manitoba RCMP Chief Supt. Scott Kolody said the in-custody death is under investigation by thepolice force's serious crimes unit.

The Brandon Police Service will review that investigation, and a "local community member" will be an observer, Kolody said.

An autopsy was conducted on Dec. 3 but police are still waiting for toxicology reports. Kolody said there was no indication of foul play.

Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), an organization representing most First Nations in the province's north, isurging the provincial government to appoint an independent civilian investigator to look into the circumstances surrounding Okemow's death.

"I don't support or have confidence in police investigating police, whose real agenda is to mitigate the wrongdoing," he said.

Okemow's family and the First Nation are also accusing the doctor and nurses at the nursing station of failing to diagnose the woman properly.

"Not only were her human rights violated but I believe negligence by these officials played a role in her death," Watt said.

"The doctor who examined her, the attending nurses and the RCMP breached their duty of care and were grossly negligent for not providing her adequate care."

The community of Gods Lake Narrows, only accessible by air or boat,is located 550 kilometresnortheast of Winnipeg.