Cain Wapass with his young daughter. An inquest into Wapass' death has concluded. (submitted)

By Susan McNeil

Cain Wapass inquest

Aunt not confident jury recommendations into Cain Wapass’ death will lead to change

Apr 19, 2023 | 5:00 PM

Jeanette Wapass, the aunt of Cain Wapass whose death was the subject of a coroner’s inquest that ended Wednesday, only learned about how he died at the start of the inquest.

Jeanette recognizes that her nephew struggled with alcoholism, but pointed out that he had completed an addictions course and there was much more to him than that.

“What the inquest didn’t talk about was that my nephew was only 28 years old, was a father and a nephew that had a giant heart. He liked the outdoors, he was learning and doing mechanics. A little bit of hunting and even though we didn’t keep in touch as often, he always made time to call me and say ‘auntie, how are you doing?’” she said.

Jeanette Wapass spoke about her nephew through tears, saying she is not confident that the inquest recommendations will be acted on. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Cain’s death was ruled accidental by a jury, who heard several days of testimony from arresting officers, civilian staff at the Ahtahkakoop RCMP detachment, ambulance staff and the pathologist who examined Cain’s body.

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He died in an RCMP cell in July 2020, but the inquest heard he had been seen by EMTs. His step-father Reginal Durocher had called them hours earlier because he felt Cain needed medical help.

After refusing care, Cain’s behaviour deteriorated. Police were called and took him into custody.

“At one point, we heard he was scared and one of the constables reassured him to not be scared and that he was safe,” said Jeanette. “We never did know how he passed until a few days ago. It blows me away how blindsided the RCMP were.”

Jeanette is worried that the police only saw an alcoholic when they arrested Cain hours before he died, and this led them to downplay his symptoms.

“The signs were there that he was sick, and nothing was done,” she said. “My nephew was classified as a drunk, and his needs were not met.”

She has little confidence that the jury recommendations will lead to any change in either SHA or RCMP policies either.

Witness testimony about how much alcohol Cain may have consumed prior to his death was inconsistent, Coroner William Davern said in his instructions to the jury, but he died of alcohol withdrawal which can only happen if consumption has happened beforehand.

Cain suffered from a fatty liver, which can be caused by chronic binge drinking or by an unhealthy died, but he was also taking medication for epilepsy and high blood pressure along with being on the methadone program.

Those factors likely played a role in his death and to the onset of delirium tremens. Cain at one point or another showed many if not all of the symptoms of DTs but none of the people working with him from police to guards to ambulance staff recognized it.

This led the five member jury to make their two recommendations, that the SHA train all EMS to recognize the condition and the RCMP do the same.

Jeanette Wapass would like to see both recommendations acted on and she would also like the RCMP to apologize for failing in their duty of care.

“I would like to see some justice,” she said.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com