Inquest Coroner Dismisses Thunder Bay Police Efforts to Exclude Controversial Video
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Posted by Shelby Percival
- Posted in BlogsNews
Mamakwa-McKay Inquest Coroner Rules Video Depicting Blatantly Racist Conduct and Inhumane Treatment of Indigenous Prisoners to Be Shown to Inquest Jury
Don Mamakwa (L) and Roland McKay (R)
Today, presiding coroner Dr. David Cameron confirmed that the upcoming Inquest into the deaths of Don Mamakwa (d. August 2, 2014) and Roland McKay (d. July 19, 2017) will consider video footage from the night that Don Mamakwa died, showing Thunder Bay Police Service mistreatment of a different Indigenous individual in police custody.
For a copy of Dr. Cameron’s decision (March 16, 2022), click here.
The police service unsuccessfully tried to block the footage from being shown to Inquest jurors. In this disturbing video footage, taken from CCTV at the TBPS jail on the same night that Mr. Mamakwa died while in TBPS custody, a different Indigenous individual is shown being mistreated by TBPS officers. The footage sadly captures yet another example of the systemically racist mistreatment of Indigenous individuals by the Thunder Bay Police Service.
For more information and media availability, please see press release here.
For more on the Thunder Bay Police Service’s failed efforts to block the video, click here.
For more on the failings of the systemically racist Thunder Bay Police Service, see the OIPRD’s Broken Trust report here and the Sinclair Report on the TBPS Board here.
