By Marvin Ross
Soleiman Faqiri had a promising future ahead of him when he enrolled in an engineering program at the University of Waterloo in 2005. He was bright, personable and a good athlete but, like some at that age, he developed schizophrenia. And while many with this illness can do reasonably well with proper medical care, it was not to be for Soleiman.
On December 15, 2016, he died under brutal circumstances in the detention centre in Lindsey, Ontario. This December, seven long years later, another coroner’s jury ruled that his death was a homicide but the police may or may not re-open the investigation. Two police forces had previously investigated the circumstances of his death and came to no conclusion.
What happened to this promising young man was despicable but not unusual in Ontario.
Soleiman did not tolerate his medication well and was thus not compliant. Whether his doctors worked with him on that was not made clear but his psychotic behaviour brought him into contact with the police numerous times. He lived with his family and was very close to his mother but when he had problems, the police took him to hospital. His last episode was a dispute with a neighbour and it was alleged he brandished a knife and the neighbour sustained minor injuries.
On that occasion, the police charged him and took him to jail where he was remanded to the local detention centre to await trial. Questions were raised about his fitness to stand trial while his parents attempted to visit him in jail but they were denied. Then, on December 12, Soleiman appeared in court in Oshawa, Ontario via a video link from the jail. His brother, Yusuf, commented that he looked terrible and told the court that the family had struggled to place him in a health-care facility and get him the medical attention he needed — “Soleiman needed help in a medical institution”, he said, “not time in a jail”.
When asked by the Crown, Yusuf replied that Soleiman looked worse than he had ever looked in the 11 years since his diagnosis. The jail nurse told the court that Soleiman was not speaking to anyone, refusing his medicine, not eating properly, and lying on the floor, making no eye contact. The court ordered a psychiatric assessment but while he waited, he was in segregation. Three days later, he was dead.
According to testimony reported in the Toronto Star and by Canadian Press, Soleiman was lying in his cell covered in feces, urine and vomit. Guards took him by wheelchair to the showers but he refused to get out of the shower once he was in it. He was throwing water and soap at them but they finally got him out and took him back to his cell with his wrists and feet cuffed. He spit on a guard and was hit. He resisted going into his cell so guards twice used pepper spray on him and forced him to the ground. An alarm was sent out and a large group of correctional officers entered Soleiman’s cell.
Prison guards took shifts trying to subdue him and, in addition to the pepper spray, they used a spit hood while he was on his stomach. He died at 3:45 that afternoon with more than 50 injuries to his body with bruised lacerations to his forehead, with multiple bruises and abrasions on his face, body and limbs from blunt impact trauma.
Details of that occurrence can be found here based on a freedom of information request by the Toronto Star.
An investigation by the Kawartha Lakes police concluded they had no grounds to lay criminal charges against anyone for his death. A 2017 Coroner’s Inquest concluded that “it was unknown what injuries were from his struggle with the officers, and they couldn’t ascertain the cause of death.”
The family appealed to the CBC investigative show, the Fifth Estate, to look into the death which they did and I highly recommend watching it if you can stomach the graphic pictures and video. It is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgcmP3PU1Sg
They managed to get all of the reports which they turned over to an independent pathologist, Dr John Butt. His conclusion was that Soleiman’s death was the result of restraint causing what he called excited delirium. There was evidence of pressure being applied to his neck so that he could not breathe. The police interview with the first paramedic on scene revealed that the paramedic could not get a straight answer from the jail officials when he asked what happened.
There was an eyewitness to the altercation who would not talk to the police but he did talk to the Fifth Estate. He was in the cell opposite Soleiman’s and his description of the beating was vivid including how a guard had his knee on Soleiman’s neck (George Floyd?). When the Fifth Estate took their findings to the Chief Coroner with a request to re-open the investigation, they were told that Ontario had new evidence and a criminal investigation was being launched involving the Ontario Provincial Police.
The cause of death, according to Ontario’s chief coroner, Michael Pollanen, was a direct result of the actions of the guards who beat and restrained him. It was the prone-position restraint and the injuries to Soli’s body that caused him to become hypoxic or have a fatal heart arrhythmia. Either individually, or in combination, the actions of those in the cell caused him to die.
That investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police based on the findings of the coroner, did not result in any criminal charges either. The police could not find criminal culpability.
A large part of the problem in Ontario was described by Howard Sapers, a former correctional investigator, who testified at the latest hearing. He pointed out that once someone goes into a correctional setting, they are no longer covered by the Canada Health Act. Any needed health care has to be provided by the prison at the prison’s expense and if they need to go to a community hospital, the prison must pay for it. Ontario decided in 2018 to change that after convening a panel of experts who made the recommendation but then Ontario failed to follow through.
Sapers continued to testify that if you have a doctor and prescribed medication before you go into prison, there is no guarantee that you can keep that doctor and still get your medication. Plus, the medical staff work for the prison and are responsible to some prison administrator rather than a clinician. In his 12 years as a federal prison ombudsman, Sapers said the main complaint from prisoners had to do with medical care. Ontario has no prison ombudsman so complaints go to the general ombudsman who handles all complaints about the government.
The use of segregation of prisoners with mental illness is a long standing failure by Ontario who have ignored all orders to cease the practice. The case of Jahn v Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, began in 2012 when Christina Jahn filed a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal because she was in segregation for 240 days suffering with mental illness, addictions and cancer. In 2013, the parties settled with Ontario agreeing not to put those with mental illness into segregation unless absolutely necessary. Informing people of their rights was added in 2015.
Despite that, Ontario continued using segregation until the Human Rights Commission brought a contravention application because Ontario continued to ignore the agreement. That was resolved in 2018 when Ontario undertook to comply with a series of requirements when dealing with those with mental illness. In 2020, Mr Justice Cole released his report on Ontario’s compliance as assigned by the 2018 agreement.
Between July 2018 and June 2019, more than 12,000 people were placed in segregation in Ontario, and 46% of them had mental health alerts on their files. The Commission filed a contravention order in 2020 asking for a full prohibition on segregation for anyone with a mental health disability, a strict limit on any segregation placement beyond 15 continuous days and 60 total days in a year, and the creation of an independent monitor role to provide oversight of Ontario’s correctional system. I can find nothing since that date.
Getting back to the recommendations from the latest Faqiri hearing, the jury recommended that Ontario provide an independent watchdog with the power to launch investigations and to report annually. There were a total of 57 recommendations made but, as said earlier, there is no obligation to implement any of them. The archives are full of recommendations that have been ignored.
Hopefully, this time, some good will come of the needless death of a promising young man.