Prison guards plead not guilty on manslaughter charge

Lawyers for two New Brunswick correctional officers charged with manslaughter in the death of a Nova Scotia inmate have entered not guilty pleas on their behalf and elected trial by judge and jury. Alvida Ross, 48, and Mathieu Bourgoin, 31, face manslaughter and criminal negligence charges in the 2015 death of Matthew Hines of Cape Breton. RCMP had originally said foul play was not suspected in the death of Hines, who was repeatedly pepper sprayed in a New Brunswick prison. But Canada’s correctional investigator, Ivan Zinger, found prison staff used unnecessary force and failed to properly respond to the medical emergency at Dorchester Penitentiary.

Neither of the officers were in court Wednesday.

Five days have been set aside for a preliminary hearing to begin Oct. 29, but Alison Menard, the lawyer for Bourgoin, said Wednesday there are a lot of documents to consider. “It’s always really difficult in the early stages to determine how long something will take from start to finish. Part of that is scheduling and part of that is how complex the file is,” she said.

The proceedings are being conducted in French.

Hines was serving a five-year sentence for crimes including robbery when he died on May 26, 2015.

Family members were originally told the 33-year-old died of a seizure.

Two family members, who travelled from Sydney, N.S., wept in court Wednesday and declined to comment as they left the courthouse.

“Today is just too hard,” their lawyer, Julie Kirkpatrick, told reporters.

On January 3 - the day the charges were laid - the family issued a statement which included: “Although we have been told and accept that only two correctional officers are facing criminal charges under the Criminal Code of Canada, we trust that all who saw Matthew before and during his death look in the mirror every day with the knowledge of what they did and did not do.”