Inquest into death of teen at Kilburn Hall postponed

A public inquest scheduled to start Monday into a teen’s death at a secure custody youth facility in Saskatoon has been postponed.

In July 2015, a 17-year-old boy was taken from the Kilburn Hall Youth Centre to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The inquest is being rescheduled because an expert witness was unavailable and one of the lawyers raised some questions about evidence.

A new date has not been set. The youth’s mother said at the time of her son’s death that he had asked staff to take him to hospital because he wasn’t feeling well. She said she called the centre after she spoke to him on the phone, but didn’t get anywhere.

The mother said the 17-year-old boy, who was associated with a Saskatoon street gang, had been taken into custody after he ran away from a drug treatment program.

She said he’d been at Kilburn Hall before that for a series of robberies.

“The night before, (he) called me. He was talking very, very fast and he told me, ‘Mom, I’ve been up for 12 days. I don’t feel good. I asked them to take me to hospital and they won’t,”’ she told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

She said she believes he died from consuming some kind of drug. Her son was on prescription medication, she said, and she believed he’d also taken some street drugs before his death.

Saskatchewan Justice spokesman Drew Wilby said in the days following the teen’s death that foul play was not suspected.