Solomon Uyarasuk inquest: Cell meal slots welded shut a year later

RCMP Cpl. Lorne Morrison testified Thursday that he was never briefed on Solomon Uyarasuk’s death, even though he arrived at the detachment as the officer in charge just six weeks later, but he went ahead and ordered the meal slots in the detachment's cells welded shut. 

Morrison testified this morning by videoconference from Repulse Bay, Nunavut, in the coroner’s inquest into the death of 26-year-old Uyarasuk in a cell in the Igloolik RCMP detachment in 2012.

Testimony at the inquest this week has indicated that Uyarasuk used a belt attached to a meal slot in the door of his cell to asphyxiate himself.

When Morrison arrived six weeks later, he was never briefed on the incident, but he said he heard around town there was a problem with the meal slot doors.

Shortly after he arrived, he had a co-worker lock him in both cells. When he kicked at the cell door, nothing happened, but when he kicked at the meal slot door, it opened.

He said that concerned him because a prisoner could reach through and grab at someone, and because it formed a sharp edge prisoners could use to hurt themselves.

Morrison said he installed video cameras pointing at the meal slot door to see how prisoners were using the door.

In the fall of 2013 — a year after Uyarasuk died — he asked a general contractor to look at the meal slot doors to see if they could be fixed. The contractor ended up welding them shut.

Morrison said he probably overstepped by asking the contractor to do that, but he had already emailed RCMP property management in Iqaluit to let them know about problems with the cells, including poor ventilation and no showers.

Property Management thanked him for his concerns, but didn’t fix the meal slot doors until Spring 2014.

The six jury members and lawyers toured the Igloolik RCMP detachment and cells this morning, to get a first hand look at the layout.