New Whitehorse shelter operator removed crucial procedures, inquest hears

The non-profit organization that took over operations at the Whitehorse emergency shelter in 2022 discontinued some procedures at the facility, including an overdose response procedure, a coroner's inquest heard this week.

Testimony during this third and final week of the inquest focused on some of the changes made at the facility after Connective, the non-profit, took over operations from the Yukon government. 

"We do not have clear guidelines ... we have a lot of grey (areas) in the program," Gigi McKee, the regional director for Connective, said at the inquest. 

One of those changes saw shelter staff no longer doing regular bathroom checks. Two months after that change, a shelter guest was found dead in a bathroom of a suspected overdose, the inquest heard this week. Lawyers said nobody checked on that person for 45 minutes.

The procedure requiring regular bathroom checks was one the territorial government had adopted earlier when it was still operating the shelter. It was enacted following the deaths of two women in a shower room at the facility in early 2022.

Those two deceased women — Myranda Tizya-Charlie and Cassandra Warville — are the focus of the coroner's inquest, along with two other Indigenous women who also died at the shelter early last year: Josephine Elizabeth Hager and Darla Skookum.

The inquest's third week focused on some of the policies and procedures at the shelter, both before and after Connective took over operations in October 2022. The jury heard from some Connective managers and directors, as well as officials from the Yukon government.

The inquest heard that the deaths of the four people were reported at the shelter since Connective took over.

It also heard that, along with the policy on bathroom checks, the organization had scrapped another procedure, in place under the Yukon government, requiring staff to call emergency services or refer clients elsewhere if they weren't able to walk on their own because they were too intoxicated. 

That echoed testimony from some shelter staff who said there was a lack of guidance under Connective about when to call for emergency services for a guest, and that it became routine to put intoxicated guests into a wheelchair and then into a bed instead of calling for help.

Connective director Chris Kinch testified that nothing had been done to provide more training for staff.

Meanwhile, he said the policy requiring that shelter guests be able to walk on their own wasn't always feasible. He also said the goal of the shelter was to be as accessible as possible. Kinch said Connective is moving away from using the term "low-barrier" when speaking about the shelter, and is rather using "accessible."

Kinch could not say what it would take for someone to be banned from the shelter. That was in response to questions about events before Hager's death.

The inquest heard that Hager had been sexually assaulted at the shelter by another guest and experienced an overdose not long before her death, and that that did not lead to any changes in how the shelter operated. Kinch, however, testified that a safety plan to monitor her with extra care had been drafted, but it had never been sent nor communicated among staff.