‘It’s still happening’: rally held at Law Courts after third death at remand centre in 10 months

Treatment at the Winnipeg Remand Centre was compared to residential schools as a family awaits answers about an in-custody death.

Kiana Everett’s family stood outside the pre-trial detention centre Monday as about 60 people gathered for a rally.

“We got rid of residential schools. We thought we abolished that,” said Melissa Robinson, director of the Missing and Murdered First Nations Peoples Unit for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

“We’re now in 2026, and it’s still happening… to our people.”

The province has reported three in-custody deaths involving the remand centre in less than 10 months.

Everett, 25, was found unresponsive in her cell last month. She was rushed to hospital June 28 and died last Wednesday after being taken off life support.

Norman Lagimodiere, Everett’s father, said he was supposed to have a meeting at the remand centre Monday to learn more details. An autopsy happened on Thursday, he said.

Lagimodiere said the meeting was postponed, at the last minute, after he’d tried to bring other people with him. The Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation councillor sought to bring representatives from the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Southern Chiefs’ Organization, among others.

“I’m going in there as a father, not a leader,” he said. “All I want is answers for myself and for the families that have been harmed while in custody.”

Lagimodiere said leadership at the remand centre offered to reschedule. A provincial government spokesperson declined to answer questions Monday.

In the meantime, Everett’s family, including Lagimodiere’s father-in-law and brother-in-law, said they plan to camp outside the centre.

Everett had been in the facility since Feb. 24. She was homeless at the time, Lagimodiere said.

She’d grown up in the Child and Family Services system and graduated from Murdoch MacKay Collegiate. She’d struggled with addictions and was detained for theft, among other things, Lagimodiere said.

Everett had been on “suicide watch” when she was found unresponsive. The cell had surveillance cameras, Lagimodiere told the Free Press last week.

He has spoken to the hospital and Everett’s support workers, he said Monday.

As the number of police increases, so does the number of people in jail — and the number of people dying in jail, said Bronwyn Dobchuk-Land, a University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor who attended the rally.

“I’ve come to… understand that if we don’t step out into the streets and grieve publicly and make people at the Law Courts building uncomfortable and insist on accountability, that change won’t ever happen,” Dobchuk-Land said.

“It’s time for accountability. It’s time for change.”

There will be a service for Everett in Winnipeg next Sunday, and another at Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation on Monday.

Inquests are mandatory for in-custody deaths in Manitoba.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com