Inquest set in death of Cree man, 20, that was ruled accidental

Lisa Johnstone doesn't expect an upcoming coroner's inquest into her son Brennan Ahenakew's death to answer her questions.

When she was informed last February that the hearing would take place, it came out of left field, she said. She has hired a lawyer to represent her family at the inquest, scheduled for Aug. 23 to 27.

An inquest is a fact-finding, not fault-finding, process that establishes when and how someone died. It may also highlight dangerous conditions or practices, and the jury can make non-binding recommendations to prevent future deaths.

Ahenakew died May 10, 2018, on Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation. The 20-year-old's remains were found in a vehicle that was destroyed by fire.

RCMP had learned about the charred vehicle on May 10, but the officer who responded initially did not search it. Officers returned to the scene after receiving missing persons reports and information about possible human remains in the vehicle.

Johnstone said she isn't satisfied with the coroner's finding that her son's death was accidental.

In recent months, she has read the witness statements collected by RCMP and the police reports, and has viewed pictures of her son taken after his remains were removed from the car. The pictures were part of the inquest disclosure.

“I have seen first-hand exactly where the neglect has happened in my son's case and when it was revealed how my son died and that my son … had ashes in his lungs, that all investigations into anything surrounding anything else was stopped,” she said in an interview with the Starphoenix.

“I've always been patient with the RCMP'S investigation, but after going through the disclosure and everything, and seeing exactly what they did, it's really disheartening.”

After seeing photos taken at the scene by an officer who initially attended, she questions why they didn't look inside the vehicle. There were no signs of active flames or smoke in the photos, but the vehicle was burned black, she said.

The disclosure package contains conflicting witness statements taken by RCMP from people at a house her son visited on the night of May 9, but it contains no indication that the statements were investigated, Johnstone said.

For example, one person in the house told police Ahenakew had spoken about going to go burn himself, but he said in a text message to a girl that he would stop to smoke with her on his way home.

Johnstone said she believes someone killed her son.

“He did not just get in his car and drive across the reserve to a field, hit a rock and drive into trees and go and burn himself. There's absolutely nobody in their right (expletive) mind would do that,” she said.

Based on what she read in the disclosure, she doesn't believe police truly followed up on her reports about what people told her they witnessed, or about a fake Facebook profile that sent family members messages, she said.

Johnstone said she has asked the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, which looks into public complaints involving the RCMP, to review the force's handling of the investigation into her son's death.

One thing police said that she agrees with is that her son was a good kid, she added.

He had a lot of potential and was hanging out with other young people, as kids his age do, but was at the wrong place at the wrong time, she concluded.

In an emailed response to a request for comment, the Saskatchewan RCMP said it will have legal representation at the inquest and welcomes it “as it is a fact-finding process that will allow for full disclosure of the facts as they pertain to this case.”

Johnstone said she constantly thinks of her late son, even more so on Tuesday as she watched her younger son's graduation ceremony.

“I've been standing up for so long.

He did not just get in his car and drive across the reserve to a field, hit a rock and drive into trees and burn himself.

It's getting tiring, it does get tiring for me. Not only that, I've had to think to myself, `In one month, I'm going to be in a room with these people. In one month, I'm going to have to sit in a room, in a closed room with these people on this witness list and I'm going to have to listen to their version of events.' ”