Regina police chief stands by Machiskinic death investigation

The family of Nadine Machiskinic says the RCMP’s review into how the Regina Police Service (RPS) handled the mother of four’s death investigation brings to light things the family already knew.

“This RCMP report just validates what I’ve been saying all along; the investigators were not doing their jobs,” Delores Stevenson, Machiskinic’s aunt, said during a news conference Monday at the Regina YWCA.

“I’ve had to raise concerns over and over about how they were doing their jobs, and if there was any progress going forward with their investigation.”

Machiskinic died in January 2015, after she was found severely injured at the bottom of a laundry chute in Regina’s Delta Hotel. The RPS wasn’t notified of her death until nearly three days later.

Initially, Machiskinic’s death was ruled accidental by police, but an inquest later deemed it undetermined.

The RCMP review, which was released late last week following a Freedom of Information request, stated the Regina police did not meet the professional standards of a sudden death investigation, noting a list of factors that were detrimental to it.

“This brings into question other investigations, how they’re being handled, how they’re being treated, how they’re being investigated,” Stevenson said.

She added she doesn’t feel angry about the findings of the report, but rather the injustice surrounding the investigation.

“This is all too common with First Nations people,” Stevenson said. “I feel angry at the injustice that’s being portrayed continually over and over that this sort of thing is OK … that it’s OK to do unprofessional investigations and say, ‘We did the best we could.’ ”

She noted the review is not only important for Machiskinic’s family, but for those of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Indigenous people in general.

“We have to fight twice as hard just to get answers, just to get justice and that’s not fair,” Stevenson said.

She added there was racial stereotyping during the investigation, with the assumption that Machiskinic was being treated for a drug overdose.

“There were already stereotypes being made, there were already assumptions being made — before even being examined. That says a lot about how she was being treated,” Stevenson said.

Machiskinic’s family, along with members of the Saskatchewan Coalition Against Racism, are calling on the provincial government to reform The Police Act and create a civilian oversight committee.

Bray confident in RPS death investigation

Despite the RCMP review showing the RPS didn’t meet the standards of a professional sudden death investigation in Machiskinic’s case, Chief Evan Bray is standing by it.

Though he admits there were delays in the process, Bray told reporters Monday the review doesn’t change the outcome of the investigation.

“Based on all the information we investigated, we’ve exhausted all avenues that were available to us. At this point, we have no evidence that somebody was criminally responsible (for Machiskinic’s death),” he said. “We can’t always give the families the answers they want to hear; we have to be able to give them what the investigation shows us.”

Bray said the review shouldn’t shake people’s confidence in the police service.

“I think this review will enhance the trust that the public has in us to take a critical look at the work that we do, and to make improvements where we need to,” he explained.

Bray said the RPS has taken note of the RCMP’s 14 recommendations laid out in its review and the police force has expanded its communication “tenfold” because of it.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Jessie Anton and Britton Gray