‘Administrative oversight’ at Ontario police watchdog may delay inquest into death of First Nations man

[Michael Jack]

An “administrative oversight” may delay an Ontario inquest into the death of Ronald Skunk.

According to the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), a report from director Joseph Martino was supposed to be forwarded to the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency (LECA) for investigation in November 2025.

But the SIU, which investigates incidents where members of the public are harmed when interacting with police, didn’t transfer the report until APTN News enquired about the status of the investigation.

“The matter was not referred to LECA due to an administrative oversight,” said SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon in an Aug. 11 email to APTN. “We have now completed the referral.”

Skunk, 59, a member of Mishkeegogamang Ojibway Nation, was outside a store in Pickle Lake, Ont., on Sept. 11, 2024, when he fell and struck his head. A call went out to OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) officers in the area that a man had passed out in front of the Northern Store. When they arrived, they called for paramedics to check him out. According to the SIU report, Skunk had been drinking.

The paramedic, who was working alone, medically cleared Skunk. He was taken to the OPP detachment where the arresting officer, who “had prior experience” with Skunk, was going to let him “sleep it off” in a cell, according to the report.

Hours later, at 12:30, a.m., the arresting officer “entered the cell intending to release” Skunk but she couldn’t rouse him. When he couldn’t be awakened, “the officer left the cell intending to release him later that morning.”

A couple of hours later, according to the report, a civilian guard whose duty it is to monitor people in the cells told the arresting officer they were concerned about Skunk. The officer went to his cell and found him “gasping for air.”

She was still “unable to rouse him.” Paramedics arrived at 3:58 and Skunk was taken to Mishkeegogamang Nursing Station.

Skunk’s daughter, Katie Keesickquayash, remembers the police arriving at her home in the middle of the night.

“OPP were banging at my door and they told my husband that, ‘Katie needs to get to the clinic in Mishkeegogamang,’” she told APTN. ‘Her dad is unresponsive.’ I was still waking up, and I looked at my husband and was like, ‘Oh, has my dad gone to the basement? I’m going head downstairs to get him a drink, and make him something to eat,’” she said.

“He was like, ‘No, babe, your dad’s in the clinic. He’s not waking up. You have to go to him right now.’”

Keesickquayash said she got on the phone and called her aunt and told her that “dad’s in the clinic. He’s not waking up.”

She got to the clinic and the doctors said there was nothing they could do. Keesickquayash said the doctor told her that if they had gotten her father sooner, maybe more could be done. She said the clinic was sending her father to Thunder Bay for a second opinion.

“We went to Thunder Bay and the doctors told me that because he was in that unconscious state too long, there was nothing that they could do for him,” she said, “and that I should call my family to come out and be with us before we pull the plug.”

Skunk died on Sept. 14. His death was attributed to “blunt force head trauma.”

Considering the evidence, no criminal charges against officers

In his report, Martino said there were two criminal code offences to consider in this case: failure to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence causing death. He said for the first, conduct on the part of the officers would have to amount to a “marked departure from the level of care that a reasonable person would have exercised in the circumstances. The latter is premised on even more egregious conduct that demonstrates a wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.”

According to the SIU report, Marinto said that neither officer “transgressed the standard of care prescribed by the criminal law” in Skunk’s case but that the arresting officer “should have called for medical care” when she was unable to wake him in his cell.

OPP policy dictates that “emergency medical attention be immediately summoned when an intoxicated person cannot be roused.” But Martino noted that the officer had “past experiences” with Skunk “which led her to believe that he was simply in a deep sleep because of his intoxication.”

He concluded that “there is no basis for proceeding with criminal charges in this case.”

However, at the end of his Nov. 28, 2025 report, Martino said it was being passed to LECA and the OPP Commissioner’s Office for review.

“While finding no grounds for criminal charges, Director Martino identified potential misconduct by the subject official related to the care provided to the affected person,” Hudon wrote to APTN.

Keesickquayash said the SIU report “leaves a lot of information out, and it doesn’t fully give clarity to why the officers or the paramedics just labeled my father okay to go ‘sleep it off.’”

Keesickquayash’s sister was with her father that day. She said her sister is still struggling and didn’t want to be interviewed about what happened. But she said that paramedics and the police “were given information by the people that were around him at the time of his fall that he had previous head injuries, that he needed to get to Mishkeegogamang clinic to get his head looked at.”

The SIU said four civilian witnesses were interviewed for its investigation. Keesickquayash said her sister was one of those interviewed.

Could be 5 years or more for an inquest

Provincial law compels Ontario’s coroner to hold an inquest into the case of anyone who dies in custody. According to the coroner, “all investigations will need to be completed first” before an inquest will be organized.

The case of Ronald Skunk is now in the hands of LECA. According to its website, LECA is an “independent civilian oversight agency that “ensures all public complaints against the police are dealt with in a manner that is transparent, effective and fair.”

“Upon completion, an investigative report is prepared and provided to the appropriate parties, including the individual(s) who are the subject of the investigation and the designated authority, such as the Chief of Police,” said LECA spokesperson, Savi D’Mello.

D’Mello said for family to be involved, they’d have to file their own complaint for any information from its investigation to be shared.

Once LECA finishes its investigation, the case will go to the OPP, which will start its own review of the officers involved and whether any “misconduct” is found.

When that investigation is complete, Ontario’s coroner will begin the process of setting up an inquest into Skunk’s death.

“The timeframe for completion of third-party investigations and subsequent prosecutions may be anywhere between 1 and 5 years (or more),” said a spokesperson with the coroner’s office.

It’s not clear whether the delay in handing the file over to LECA will affect the inquest.

Keesickquayash said the family will hold a walk every year until the inquest is called.

“It hurts us every day that we don’t have a dad anymore and we kids don’t have a grandfather,” Keesickquayash said. “I wondered, like, what the officers or the paramedics think or feel. And I guess I would like to see that in the future, any police or paramedics do a better job in situations like that.”

Keesickquayash said she’s talking to lawyers, but no legal action has been taken as of yet, she said.

Skunk is one of 11 First Nations, Inuit and Métis people killed while interacting with police in late 2024.

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