inquest jury finds nicole lafontaine's death accidental, makes recommendations
"they did great," nicole lafontaine's mother said moments after shaking hands and hugging members of the jury on the final day of the inquest into her daughter's death.
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valerie lafontaine, the mother of deceased nicole lafontaine, stands outside the royal hotel regina on wednesday, august 21, 2024. an inquest was ordered into the death of nicole, who fell from a fifth-floor window at the ywca in july 2023.
kayle neis
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regina leader-post
two of valerie lafontaine’s four children died at the regina ywca. andrea and nicole were a year apart in age. they died within seven months.
“they were one another,” she said. “they shared everything, including this addiction. they loved each other.”
addiction was an issue that loomed large over the death inquest of nicole lafontaine, who died at approximately 3:40 a.m. on july 22, 2023.
on wednesday, a jury of six found her death to be accidental, caused by multiple blunt force injuries after crawling out a window on the ywca’s fifth-floor shelter.
medical logs entered as evidence during the inquest included an account from valerie who said nicole told her she had overdosed 35 times. the day before she died, nicole attended a clinic to receive suboxone, an attempt to kick the illicit opiates that were found in her system.
valerie hoped the inquest would bring some answers as well as change. she said her daughter was on the road to recovery.
“i know she wanted to clean up and get help,” valerie said wednesday. “i talked to her about that addiction problem too and she said, ‘it’s hard, mom.’
“it was really hard for her to quit.”
in the wake of nicole’s death, valerie said it felt at times like the ywca was “pushing it off to other places,” as if the organization “had no fault at all.”
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her daughter was believed to be using at the time of her stay at the ywca shelter, which is called my aunt’s place. valerie was under the impression that there was a zero-tolerance policy at the facility, meaning she would have been kicked out for using illegal substances. asked if that’s what should have happened and whether it would’ve been better for nicole, she said “we can only speculate.”
“i just don’t get why they let them use in that place.”
in looking at nicole’s charts, ywca regina ceo melissa coomber-bendtsen
said she saw someone failed by a system, someone who wanted to get sober, had goals and was making steps to achieve them.
she said the ywca is contracted to provide a pillow, a cot and a meal to its residents, but in recent years the organization has been expected to do much more. in the case of nicole lafontaine, if there were addiction treatment beds or a detox on sight, coomber-bendtsen believes nicole would have chosen those measures.
“there’s no doubt to my mind that nicole would have chosen an appropriate intervention if it was there for her, she absolutely would have,” said coomber-bendtsen.
the purpose of the inquest was to establish the identity of the deceased as well as how, when, where and by what means the death occurred. in addition, the jury can make recommendations in hopes of helping to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future.
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the six jury members, half of whom were indigenous like nicole, did just that after a three-day proceeding that included 15 witnesses.
leaving the royal hotel regina on wednesday, valerie said she was happy with the recommendations.
“they did great,” she said moments after shaking hands and hugging members of the jury.
the recommendations included specific ideas for the ywca as well as the saskatchewan housing corporation (shc) — which contracts the ywca — and the saskatchewan health authority (sha).
for the ywca, jurors recommended a more thorough intake process where residents must initial each item on admission forms. managers would then review intake forms, and inform residents of emergency procedures and guidelines.
also, they suggested checking windows and room buzzers as part of introducing residents to their rooms. the inquest found that the window crank in nicole’s room was broken at the time of her death, allowing for it to be pushed open further than normal.
while the jury recommended a zero-use drug policy on floors where residents are staying, they did suggest moving toward a safe consumption site “in a separate area.” they also recommended that the ywca establish additional supports such as employing mental health workers on site 24/7 and adding biweekly team meetings and critical incident debriefings for staff and clients.
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for the sha, they recommended that a nurse practitioner be on site 24/7 and also advised the health authority to research street drugs to better educate and notify community-based organizations about their dangers.
on wednesday morning, coomber-bendtsen highlighted that legislation around funding for homelessness is “reflective of a person who is homeless because they’re out of work” and it “still reflects veterans coming back from the war.”
so an additional recommendation was made for the government to update legislation “in terms of homelessness and what it means to be houseless.”
inquest coroner aaron fox also made recommendations to the three organizations.
fox said while the ywca is contracted to supply shelter, in reality it “is expected to supply much more.” as such, he recommended that more resources be made available across the agencies “to increase training of staff at the ywca to deal with mental health issues and addiction issues.” he urged ywca to increase its staff, including the addition of trained counsellors, a nurse practitioner and pharmaceutical support.
fox also recommended that community service providers have a presence on site so ywca residents don’t have to leave as often for appointments. he called for more resources to be directed toward addiction recovery, including making beds available for recovery and rehabilitation.
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“i really hope that through the death of nicole, some better things are going to come,” fox said at the close of the inquest, thanking the lafontaine family for sitting through a difficult and emotional process.
he also thanked the jury for their diligence and service over the three days, as well as their final recommendations.
“your recommendations do have weight,” fox added. “they do have power, and that’s why this whole exercise is so very important.”
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