Details emerge about death of Breanna Kannick
Boyfriend tells the coroner’s jury how Kannick struggled with opioid addiction
After 950 days of waiting, the family — and public — started learning details about the death of 21-yearold Breanna Kannick on Monday.
A coroner’s inquest started examining her death, which took place at the White Birch Remand Unit.
Photos of Kannick introduced as evidence showed the young woman lying in her cell on her back with her face covered in a black substance described as vomit, prompting members of Kannick’s family to briefly leave the room.
Const. Tyler Boynton of the Regina Police Service’s Forensic Identification Unit showed pictures of two bags with black liquid found in a garbage can near the head of the cell’s bed. Boynton said there was “maybe a litre” of the substance in both bags.
Boynton told the jury that in such instances the decision to seize items is done at the direction of the coroner, and that no items were seized on the day of Kannick’s death.
Almost immediately after her death, Kannick’s mother told the Leader-Post her daughter should have been on medical watch to help aid drug withdrawals, and alleged employees at White Birch were calling Kannick “pukey.”
The inquest had been delayed by several months because the Coroner’s Office wanted to do further tests on Kannick’s vomit.
After Boynton’s testimony, Kannick’s longtime boyfriend Matt Ursan described her descent into an addiction to opioids and his efforts to help her. He told the jury how Kannick’s bubbly personality changed over the course of their relationship as she fell further into her addictions.
Const. Jeremy Anderson of the Moose Jaw Police Service described how Kannick ended up at White Birch. He found her sleeping in her vehicle in the week prior to her death, arresting her for outstanding warrants. At that time, according to Anderson, she asked for help dealing with her addictions. “I told her everything was going to be OK,” said Anderson.
The bulk of the inquest on Monday afternoon saw Joseph Trotter of Regina EMS testifying. The jury heard about the efforts taken by EMS to save Kannick after they were dispatched just prior to 8 a.m. on Aug. 20 for a cardiac arrest call.
Jurors heard how EMS pulled Kannick off of the cell’s mattress to perform CPR and take other live-saving measures. A registered nurse was on scene prior to EMS arriving. Anderson told jurors the nurse had noted Kannick’s vitals had been good the night prior, but that she was going through withdrawals.
She was pronounced dead less than one hour after EMS arrived.
Jennifer Berjian, a registered psychiatric nurse who was working at White Birch when Kannick died, is being represented by lawyer Reg Watson at the inquest. She is expected to testify later this week. The province, Kannick’s family and the Elizabeth Fry Society are also represented in the proceedings. Members of Kannick’s family have also filed a civil lawsuit against the province and a number of people who were working at White Birch, including Berjian, when she died.
Section 20 of The Coroners Act states that the Chief Coroner shall hold an inquest into the death of a person who dies while an inmate at a jail or a correctional facility, unless the coroner is satisfied that the person’s death was due entirely to natural causes and was not preventable. The purpose of an inquest is to provide a public hearing to examine in detail the events surrounding a death.
In addition to establishing who died, when and where the individual died, the medical cause of death and the manner of death, a six-person coroner’s jury may make recommendations to prevent similar deaths.
Coroner Alma Wiebe, a Saskatoon lawyer, is presiding at the inquest, which is scheduled to run to Thursday. dfraser@postmedia.com Twitter.com/dcfraser
I told her everything was going to be OK.