EDITORIAL A death in jail

Everyone did their best in a difficult situation, but 87-year-old Rodger Traill died in the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre last Wednesday. An elderly man with no criminal history should not have died in jail, and a coroner’s inquest is likely the best way to find out if there are lessons to be learned.

The Saanich man was arrested because he smacked his wife in the face and had threatened to kill her if she went to the police. After his wife managed to leave and call for help, police found Traill with three rifles, two shotguns and boxes of ammunition spread out in the apartment.

When he appeared in court for a bail hearing on Monday, it was clear to everyone that it wasn’t safe to let him go home, but no one wanted to send him back to Wilkinson Road jail, where he had been since the previous Friday.

The Crown prosecutor agreed to release him to a surety — a person who would take responsibility for his actions while he was on bail. Despite hours of calling Traill’s friends and his children, however, the defence lawyer couldn’t find anyone who would volunteer.

The judge didn’t want to send him back to Wilkinson Road, but with those facts in front of her, she had no choice. It’s not clear how he died, and the coroner is investigating.

It’s possible that the circumstances were so unusual that nothing useful could be learned from an inquest. But everyone in the system would benefit from a second look at what happened.