Get on with the inquest

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(DALE CUMMINGS/ WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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(DALE CUMMINGS/ WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Police Chief Keith McCaskill stressed Tuesday that the Winnipeg Police Service made no recommendation -- one way or the other -- on criminal charges in its investigative report on the death of Brian Sinclair, who died after he sat for 34 hours in Health Sciences Centre's ER waiting room without medical attention. The report was sent to a Saskatchewan prosecutor who determined charges aren't warranted.

The decision not to make recommendations, as police typically do in reports to prosecutors, was a political one. Chief McCaskill and lead investigator Det.-Sgt. John O'Donovan said the decision was made because of the unique nature of the review -- both believe no health facility in Canada has ever faced criminal charges in such circumstances. The police report looked at the relevancy of a charge of criminal negligence causing death, and of failure to provide the necessities of life. From there, decisions were left to the Crown's office.

Up to 20 officers interviewed 170 people, and compiled 5,000 documents and video files over 10 months. Statutes relating to hospitals, registered nurses and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority were examined. While the Saskatchewan prosecutions office refused to comment on its opinion on charges, the decision not to charge implies there was no gross dereliction of professional duty on any individual's part.

Mr. Sinclair went to HSC in September 2008 seeking help for a bladder infection. The WRHA has said he did not "formally present himself" to the triage desk, but he did have contact with staff in the waiting room, including a triage aide. Surveillance video, as subsequently revealed by the chief medical examiner, shows Mr. Sinclair, a double amputee in a wheelchair, making his way to the triage desk upon arrival, where he spoke to someone in a uniform. Security staff attempted to get help for him at one point when he vomited.

The ER staff regularly gave care and shelter to homeless people who wandered into the waiting room. After Mr. Sinclair's death, the layout of the room was changed to allow a better view of those waiting, and protocols for checking on people there were tightened.

Det.-Sgt. O'Donovan said at a news conference Tuesday that no one at HSC refused to treat Mr. Sinclair. This falls in line with the WRHA's conclusion that, while mistakes were made, no one individual is to blame for his death.

The decision by the Winnipeg Police Service to simply collect evidence is odd. Typically, in routine investigations of crime, police officers charge suspects directly; in more complicated matters, they recommend charges that are then reviewed by prosecutors for a final decision.

Relegating the investigation to a compilation of facts and circumstances reveals the emotionally charged, political, contentious nature of this affair -- Mr. Sinclair's family and many within the native and broader community believe the hospital system itself set up the man to be "ignored to death." Some are convinced that institutional racism was at root, an allegation the staff at HSC previously had to battle relating to care for aboriginal people. That is a matter for the inquest to examine.

The police report and evidence will be handed over to the inquest. Chief McCaskill said he expects they will be made public. That will allow for full public scrutiny of the basis upon which the decision not to charge was made. It should fill in many of the blanks in a story that remains largely untold in an unbelievable tragedy -- a man with a relatively simply medical condition dies under the noses of ER staff, his death only being discovered by someone sitting in the waiting room, 34 hours after he arrived.

With the criminal review of the affair complete, the long-awaited inquest into Brian Sinclair's preventable death in 2008 can proceed finally. It should do so quickly before the evidence, the memories and the witnesses are compromised further by the passage of time.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 11, 2012 A6