They didn't want this inquest. Now Abdi's family is reliving his death every day

The Abdirahman Abdi inquest is being livestreamed during the day here. 

As Abdirahman Abdi lay limp and handcuffed outside his apartment building, family members looked on in horror from the other side of a lobby window.

His mother, who died this past July, watched as officers crouched by the 38-year-old Somali-Canadian's body and waited for the ambulance to arrive. 

The youngest among them saw the scene too, "desperately trying to explain Abdirahman's mental health problems to the police," the family shared in a statement read out during an ongoing coroner's inquest.

The mandatory inquest, launched on Nov. 18 and now in its final days, is examining the circumstances of Abdi's death. A jury of five people, after hearing testimony from more than 20 witnesses, will consider and possibly recommend ways to prevent deaths like his in the future.

Abdi's mental health unravelled in the months leading to July 2016, when he died a day after the violent police arrest. His family fractured following his death in hospital, according to their statement.

Abdi's father and one of Abdi's six siblings moved back to Ethiopia. They have not returned to Canada.

Abdi never met the daughter who was born seven months after his death. 

"While we have to continue with our daily lives, they will never be the same," the family stated. 

Now they are being confronted on a daily basis with the worst time of their lives, including graphic testimony last week from the pathologist who reviewed the results of Abdi's autopsy and unprecedented detailing of his treatment for mental illness.

"The medical evidence, the psychiatric evidence, going through all the details of what happened that day eight years ago, has been extremely difficult for the family and it's the reason why they did not want to have this inquest," the family's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, told CBC this week.  

An 'untenable' situation

That tension surfaced last week after Greenspon asked one inquest witness, Ontario Chief Forensic Pathologist Dr. Michael Pollanen, if he would support a recommendation requiring the Office of the Chief Coroner to hold inquests within three years if there are no criminal proceedings involved.

Greenspon's question sparked a debate held outside the presence of the jury and Pollanen.

Dr. David Eden, the inquest's presiding officer, wondered whether the topic was outside the inquest's scope. The jury hadn't heard evidence about what's involved in organizing an inquest, Eden added. 

The inquest went back on the record and Greenspon asked Pollanen if he saw any problems with putting "some kind of a time limit" on when inquests should begin. That prompted another pause in which Eden again questioned whether Greenspon was straying off-focus. 

"The families, what they are put through, as a result of this inquest taking place eight years after Mr. Abdi has passed is very much within the scope of this inquest," Greenspon said in frustration. "And if not here, then where?"

Greenspon went on to say the current situation is "untenable," even bordering on "unfair procedure." 

WATCH / The death of Abdirahman Abdi: Here's what you need to know: 

The death of Abdirahman Abdi — and the questions that remain

1 month ago

Duration 5:16

WARNING: This video contains graphic content | Eight years after Abdirahman Abdi died following a violent struggle with Ottawa police, a coroner’s inquest is bringing the event back into the spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.

Working on wait times

Eight and a half years isn't the longest wait for a 2024 Ontario coroner's inquest. 

This past July, an inquest was held in Toronto about the death in jail of Jeffrey Munro. He died in 2009. 

Recently in Ottawa, the inquest into the death of construction worker Olivier Bruneau took place in 2022, six years after his fatality.

Eden was asked about wait times back in 2016. A jury that year had examined the death of miner Stephen Perry, which happened more than four years earlier. 

Eden explained inquests can't take place until all criminal and occupational health and safety act charges have worked their way through the courts, which can take years. 

"It's a matter over which we at the coroner's office have no control," Eden said at the time. 

As inquest lawyer Alessandra Hollands pointed out last week during the debate about Greenspon's question, there was a criminal trial over Abdi's death. One of the officers involved was charged, and later acquitted, of manslaughter in a lengthy and delay-plagued judge-only trial. 

Abdi's family filed a lawsuit in 2018 against Ottawa police. It was settled in late 2020, soon after the trial wrapped. 

In an emailed statement, the Office of the Chief Cororner, which holds inquests, said it recognizes the wait has been "unacceptably long" for the last several years.

That's due in part, the office said, to a three-fold increase in the number of mandatory inquests, "continued resource strain on our criminal justice partners who do the inquest work and made somewhat worse by the COVID-19 pandemic restricting in-person inquests."

The office's goal is to reduce the caseload to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2025 and, shortly after that, to be able to complete inquests within two years of the death in typical cases "where there aren't other unavoidable causes for delay."

Dimmed witness memories

Besides the wait, the Abdi inquest has reflected another effect of Ontario's busy coroner's inquest system: relying on witness memories of things far in the past. 

Inquest findings, including potential jury recommendations for how to prevent similar deaths in the future, are built largely atop the testimony given by witnesses. 

But some primary witnesses in the Abdi inquest have admitted to struggling to remember things, given how much time has passed. 

Former Ottawa constable David Weir was the first officer to deal with Abdi on the day of his arrest, and one of the key questions explored in the inquest has been how much information about Abdi's mental health status the officers had and whether a different approach might have been taken with him. 

Weir was asked at one point of his testimony if it's helpful for officers responding to calls to receive information about a person hearing voices or having other suspected mental health issues. 

"That's a key piece of information that I would have liked to have received," he said, adding, "I really do wish I could remember everything about what was said to me in the [minutes] it took me to drive [to the scene]."

Michael Rowe, a civilian who intervened after Abdi assaulted people at a coffee shop on the morning of his arrest, relied, like other witnesses, in part on statements made in 2016 for his inquest testimony. He said it was a mental and emotional burden to revisit them. 

He added it's possible the eight-year time gap affected his ability to remember details. 

"It's something I tried to put out of my mind ever since the trial, which was five and a half years ago," he said. 

Both Weir and Rowe said they'd support another recommendation calling for inquests to happen closer to the incidents they're examining. Rowe said a faster inquest would help him provide the best evidence to the jury, and that it would be "a more humane approach to deal with people that were impacted by this event."

Those watching the all-virtual Abdi inquest say it's tough for them too.

"I know this inquest will be difficult for everyone: the community, the Abdi family, and our members who will now have to be reminded about that difficult event," Ottawa Police Association President Matthew Cox said before the inquest.

Abdirizak Mohamud, a member of a local Somali parent support group, said the inquest, now in its fourth week of testimony, has been "deeply retraumatizing for our community."

The inquest continues on Thursday, with only two witnesses left.