Northern justice, pandemic collide

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This article was published 08/06/2020 (2104 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Norway House man who was locked up in isolation at a Winnipeg jail because his family couldn’t travel to pay for his bail says he doesn’t wish the experience on anyone else.

“I’m just hoping that nobody else has to go through it, but there are other inmates in there going through it right now,” said Geoffrey Greyeyes.

The 28-year-old spent seven days in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre among other inmates who were deemed to be showing possible symptoms of COVID-19, after a judge had granted him bail on conditions that included paying $750 cash.

The bail money must be paid to the court, but the nearest courthouse is about 300 kilometres away from Norway House. Like many First Nations communities, the northern reserve is in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so travel in and out of the community is restricted.

Rohit Gupta, Greyeyes’ lawyer, said a judge shouldn’t order cash bail if there is no accessible option for people in remote communities to pay it.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, adding that Greyeyes is “someone that is presumed innocent, releasable by the court, but (had) no mechanism to get out of this.

“This is not a situation where someone couldn’t afford it. This is a situation where someone has the money… but had no mechanism of depositing (the cash).”

After Greyeyes was arrested and charged with assault on May 26, he spent two nights in a cell in the Norway House RCMP detachment before he had a telephone bail hearing with a judge at the Thompson courthouse. After hearing details of the allegations against him, which include a previous aggravated assault charge and a breach charge, the judge decided Greyeyes could be released after paying $750.

With no way to get the money to the court, Greyeyes told the Free Press he was flown on a chartered plane from Norway House to Winnipeg, along with one other prisoner and two sheriff’s officers, all of whom wore masks. Because of the pandemic, all inmates in Manitoba are being taken to the remand centre to try to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in provincial jails.

 

“I wasn’t that concerned about the virus when I was in Norway House, but when I got to Winnipeg, that’s when I got really concerned about it,” Greyeyes said after his release.

When he got to the remand centre, Greyeyes said he was considered symptomatic because he had a bad cough. He was sent to an isolation area on the third floor. With one inmate per cell, all of the cells were full, he said. He kept the same mask he’d been wearing on the plane.

“That’s where I got worried because I heard people coughing, a couple people vomiting,” Greyeyes said. “I didn’t want to leave my cell. Either way, we only had a half hour (out of the cell) every day, and that was it. We (were) locked back down in our cells for the rest of the day.” He said he spent most of his daily half hour on the phone, trying to arrange for someone to post his bail. Eventually, a friend in Winnipeg went to the Law Courts Building to pay the $750, and Greyeyes was released on the night of June 3.

When he spoke to the Free Press, he was trying to figure out how he would get back to Norway House and where he would self-isolate. While at the remand centre, he was tested for COVID-19, but hadn’t received the result. He was told that meant he likely tested negative.

“Right now, it’s a relief being out of there. But while I was in incarceration, it was nothing but aggravation and anger and… depression once in a while. It was like really one of the worst experiences I ever had when I was incarcerated, especially with this COVID-19 stuff going on,” he said.

Greyeyes’ partner, Angel Tyo, said she borrowed money for to post bail and was turned away when she tried to pay it at the RCMP detachment where Greyeyes was initially held in custody. She said she was unable to drive to Thompson.

“Then there was no way of paying it, because we can’t pay here at the RCMP office. They were telling me to go to Thompson and yet they know we can’t travel out to Thompson,” she said from Norway House.

“It was really stressful. I have four (children) with him and I have four with someone else, and that’s the only help I have. They shouldn’t have shipped him out in the first place knowing there’s no way back into town. Plus, he has nowhere to stay out there,” she said.

Asked whether RCMP detachments can accept cash bail payments, Manitoba RCMP deferred questions to Manitoba Justice, which didn’t respond.

The ability to pay cash bail has been a longstanding issue in northern Manitoba, said Legal Aid lawyer Serena Puranen, who is based in Thompson. It has worsened since circuit court sittings in those communities were put on hold.

In the past, people who couldn’t travel to Thompson could deposit bail money with the circuit court clerk, but that can’t happen with COVID-19 lockdowns in effect.

“With us not going to the reserves, then it becomes much more of an issue because people cannot simply go and pay when court is in town. (It was) an issue for a variety of people prior to the pandemic, but the pandemic has definitely exacerbated it,” Puranen said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay