HUMBOLDT DESERVES ANSWERS
It is such an interesting dichotomy, the wonderful, open, welcoming people of this town and the deliberately opaque and stubbornly non-communicative institutions that govern them and in which they place their faith.
It’s a very Canadian dichotomy, in fact. Humboldt may still be, as Kevin Garinger, the man with the two biggest hats around (he is both president of the Broncos junior hockey club and education director of the local school board), puts it, “entrenched in grief.” But every bit as entrenched — in dated rigid rules and protocols, layers of bureaucracy and the firm belief in the public’s right not to know — are the RCMP, the provincial Health Authority and the Saskatchewan Justice Ministry.
(The only institution that has separated itself from the herd in this regard are the two school boards, one Roman Catholic and one public, which run Humboldt Collegiate Institute. That likely has much to do with the fact that Garinger, whose every instinct is to be transparent, is at the helm of the public board.)
In this, they’re little different from institutions, provincial and federal, across the country, but rarely has the gap between the fundamental nature of the citizens and that of their government been so stark as it is in this place, at this awful time. And as patient and consumed with sorrow at the moment as the people of Humboldt are, and they are, even Garinger allowed, “That’s not to say there isn’t anger, upset, people asking questions. Those emotions are there, or will come.” Consider the following: Tuesday, and only in response to multiple media requests, the Saskatchewan RCMP issued a brief, one paragraph press release rejecting a rumour that had been swirling through town. It wasn’t true, so should not be repeated.
But the point is, it was the first statement of any sort — verbal or written — from the RCMP since the day after the catastrophic Friday night crash between the Broncos’ bus and a semi truck that killed 15 people and injured, some critically, the 14 people who survived.
That statement came midday Saturday, when Saskatchewan assistant commissioner Curtis Zablocki met reporters to give minimal details about the accident and say that it would likely “take some time.” Since then, the force in charge of investigating the crash has had nothing to say. And while accident reconstruction certainly can be complex, it is worth noting that the collision occurred in broad daylight (about 5 p.m.), at the lonely intersection of two small, two-lane rural highways on plains so flat and empty you could see your dog runaway.
And some things are self-evident: The Broncos’ bus was travelling north on Highway 35 and had the right of way; the truck was travelling west on Highway 335 and there’s a stop sign where the road meets 35, with flashing lights and signs warning of the stop. Now, there is a stand of trees and bushes on the southeast corner, which easily could have obscured the vision of drivers on both roads. And it was sunny, and the truck driver was driving west. And the Broncos’ team bus was white, and the frost and light covering of snow on adjacent fields were also white.
But there’s no getting around that stop sign.
Yet for three full days and change, the RCMP has had nothing to say about the status of the investigation, how it’s progressing, what work has been done, what remains to be completed. And neither the police, the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the coroner’s office nor Justice Ministry has had much to say about the misidentification of players Xavier Labelle and Parker Tobin, who were respectively pronounced dead (and then alive) and alive but injured (and then dead) beyond the fact that there’d been a mistake.
At a press briefing Monday to give an update about Royal University Hospital’s 12 remaining crash patients, multiple reporters asked specific questions about how such a terrible mix-up might have happened. The public relations official MC’ing the press conference steadfastly deflected and referred all those questions to the Justice Ministry, which is akin to sending them into an impenetrable maze.
The Justice Ministry, which left the handling of questions to its spokesman as well, hasn’t provided answers either. The collective attitude is, and has been, “It happened, we’re sorry, but hey, we’ve got grieving to do here.”
Again, there are reasonable possible explanations for the patient mix-up that are easy to imagine, among them those who were killed or grievously injured likely suffered such trauma that their faces were swollen beyond recognition.
But it is not a breach of patient privacy to say just that, nor is it insensitive (their poor families would already know this).
But this, surely, would be why, in cases of mass casualties, coroners and pathologists turn to dental records or DNA to confirm identity. It’s reasonable to ask why such a protocol wasn’t in place here.
People need to mourn and grieve. People need understanding and kindness. It is right and appropriate that human beings cry and hold hands.
But the governing institutions are responsible to those very people, and ought to be responsive as well. The Justice Ministry ought not to content itself with offering prayers to the lost and injured; the police owe the public more than silence, however respectful; the acting coroner, recognizing the dreadfulness of the mistake, should be taking questions on the province’s identification protocols. In short, the people of Humboldt are and have been magnificent. They deserve better from those who make the rules, conduct the investigations and seek their trust.