Lawyer confronts view that racism did not play role in Brian Sinclair’s death

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This article was published 16/08/2016 (3334 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The lawyer who represents Brian Sinclair’s family is firing back at comments by the province’s former chief medical examiner that racism was not a factor in Sinclair’s 2008 death.

“His comments in this case are clearly not correct. We had evidence at the inquest that people made assumptions on Brian based on the way he looked, including the fact he was aboriginal,” said Vilko Zbogar. “When you make assumptions on people based on their race — that is racism.”

Zbogar argues the one assumption that wasn’t made when Sinclair died after spending 34 hours in Health Sciences Centre’s emergency waiting room, was that he needed urgent medical care. It is believed that Sinclair, 45, a wheelchair bound double-amputee, may have been dead for up to seven hours before this fact was discovered by hospital staff.

“The conclusion that racism wasn’t a factor is absolutely not what the evidence indicates,” Zbogar said.

He was reacting to comments made by Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, who, in an exit interview with the Free Press, said racism did not play a role in Sinclair’s death. Instead, Balachandra argues there were significant changes that needed to be made in emergency rooms to allow triage nurses, along with doctors, to better communicate and handle busy times and shift changeovers.

His suggestion was to create a separate section of an emergency room where minor injuries or non-life threatening injuries could be treated in a more timely fashion. In the case of Sinclair, while emergency-trained doctors dealt with critical cases, a nurse practitioner or family doctor could have changed the catheter tube that would later become blocked, leading to Sinclair’s death from a bladder infection.

Eight years after Sinclair’s death, his sister, Esther Grant, says she “doesn’t know what to think anymore.”

“If they would’ve done something right away, they probably would’ve admitted him. He had an infection to deal with, the catheter he had on, and all they had to do was change it,” Grant said. “I am not sure what the answer is, whether it is racism or they didn’t care.”

An inquest into Sinclair’s death was immediately ordered by Balachandra, who said the chief medical examiner’s office immediately knew an inquest would be needed. 

“Staying in the emergency room for 34 hours is a long, long time, especially in a busy place like that when people are in and out… how did we miss him?” he said.

Two aboriginal groups and lawyers representing the family boycotted part of the inquest because Judge Tim Preston rejected calls to examine whether systemic racism played a role in Sinclair’s death.

At the conclusion of the 10-month inquest in 2014, David Frayer, the inquest counsel, said racism was not a recurring theme in the testimony from more than 80 witnesses.

“The only open evidence of racism was the observations made by people that they came to the conclusion that just because he was sitting there, he may have been under the influence rather than a person seeking treatment,” Frayer told The Canadian Press. “That, I guess, has some racist undertones but racism generally has not been the focus of this inquest.”

However, a 2015 report by a Toronto health policy think-tank argued the death of Sinclair is a prime example of how racism leads to poor treatment of indigenous people in Canada’s health care system.

“Racism, the refusal of care and poor treatment of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian health care system are well documented in health research,” concluded the Wellesley Institute report. “For Mr. Sinclair, the impact of racism proved fatal.”

Meanwhile, Balachandra said he believes racism could have been at play in police investigations into the deaths of two teenage girls in the early 2000s. 

‘The conclusion that racism wasn’t a factor is absolutely not what the evidence indicates’– Vilko Zbogar, lawyer who represents Brian Sinclair’s family, challenging the statement made by Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, Manitoba’s former chief medical examiner

Erin Chorney, 18, went missing in Brandon in 2002 and her body was ultimately recovered thanks to an elaborate Mr. Big sting operation with the RCMP. Her boyfriend, Michael Bridges, was convicted in June 2005 of first-degree murder.

In the same period, 16-year-old Velecia Solomon, originally from Norway House, went missing and part of her body was discovered near the Alexander Docks in 2003. Her killer was never found and Balachandra questioned why police didn’t go to the same lengths to find Solomon’s killer. 

The Winnipeg Police Service could not comment on the ongoing investigation, but noted Solomon’s case is part of Project Devote. Project Devote is a joint task force by the RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service launched in 2011 to investigate historical missing persons and homicide cases of 28 Manitobans. 

So far, only one arrest has been made in the 28 cases. In 2014, police charged Traigo Andretti with second-degree murder for the September 2006 death of Myrna Letandre. Andretti, who was also convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Jennifer McPherson, was found dead last July in a Saskatchewan psychiatric facility.

— with files from The Canadian Press

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca

 

 

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