Weighill takes our questions on revising office
Clive Weighill left the Regina police as deputy chief in 2006 to lead the Saskatoon Police Service. After retiring last year, he relocated to Regina and was appointed to head a review of the Office of the Chief Coroner. As of Sept. 15, the former police chief became the province’s chief coroner. Barb Pacholik sat down with Weighill to ask about his plans and priorities.
Q With 44 recommendations in your report, what is the priority?
A Number 1 is toxicology results. Almost everybody I talked to throughout the review had something to say about the delay that’s happening. Another issue we have is it’s not a forensic toxicology lab, even when we do get toxicology results. And in this day and age when we have that available to us, the citizens of Saskatchewan deserve to have full forensic toxicology.
Q Your report references the erosion of public confidence in the Office of Chief Coroner. How do you restore that?
A We want to improve the way that we do inquests. We have recommendations so that the inquest coroner can start to make recommendations, not just the jury. That happens pretty much right across Canada now, except in Saskatchewan, so that has to change. We want to have an advocate position (to assist families), because that has led to some of the misunderstandings about what an inquest really is and what the coroner’s service can provide.
Q There was originally a move to do away with mandatory inquests for in-custody deaths. Why did you recommended against that?
A I firmly believe that if somebody is in the care of the state and something happens to them, that there should be a very open look at what’s happened. I’m not concerned what recommendations come out of it. I’m concerned that the families and the public (learn what happened) because it builds trust.
Q With inquests for policeinvolved events, how can the public be assured these are independent when the person in charge is a former police officer?
A I don’t see that as a conflict at all ... If there’s a police-involved incident, it’s already had oversight by another police agency if it’s a serious incident. It’s already had oversight by the provincial Complaints Commission or if it’s an RCMP, the oversight for the RCMP. My only role as a chief coroner here is to make sure that if there has to be an inquest, that we find the manner and cause of death. We’re not investigating the actions of the police.
Q You recommended some changes on deciding when to hold a discretionary inquest. How will that happen?
A We’d like to have some criteria and I’ve also suggested ... a committee to assist the chief coroner on making a decision whether there should be a discretionary inquest or not. That’s really helpful because it gives the chief coroner some added input ... It also gives the families some reassurance it isn’t just a chief coroner making a decision.
Q What about the recommendation for peer review of autopsies?
A We certainly need to have a formal peer review policy here ... Most of the other provinces have mandatory peer review on certain files. We’re going to certainly have that here in Saskatchewan too. We’re going to have a study done on how our forensic pathology works. We know we need at least one more forensic pathologist. (There are currently two).
Q Have you had any indication there will be more money for your office to address some of the report’s recommendations?
A I’ve had positive indicators from the minister’s office that the recommendations have been accepted. They’ve already asked for our list of priorities, so we can get busy and start to work on some of the recommendations. It will take time.
Q Are you trying to get more information out to the public?
A Now all the inquest recommendations are put on the website. And whenever we make a recommendation that gets sent to an agency, the agency has to send a reply back that we put on the website ... Hopefully that will put a bit of expedience on these agencies to either say what they’re going to do with the recommendation or explain why they can’t put that recommendation into place.
Q Parting thoughts?
A We want to make sure that when people come to our service, that when they leave, they feel that they’ve been heard. And that we’re giving them the best information, and the best advice, and the best service that we can give them.