Inquest into death of Delilah Blair at South West Detention Center begins

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At 7:24 pm on May 21, 2017, Delilah Blair was skipping around the day room of the female mental health unit at the South West Detention Center.

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By 8:14, emergency personnel, medical staff and correctional officers crowd the room and cell where Blair lived, working to revive her.

The inquest into the death of 30-year-old Blair opened Monday, after years of pandemic delays, with the testimony of the correctional officer who found Blair unresponsive in her cell that evening.

Expected to last nine days, it will answer key questions: who Blair was, when and where she died, and the manner and cause of her death.

Most importantly, a panel of five jurors will be asked to recommend ways to prevent similar deaths in the future.

An inquest, automatically triggered under the Coroners Act when someone dies in custody, is unlike a criminal trial because it isn’t an attempt to find guilt or lay punishment.

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Monday’s questioning focused on Wright’s testimony as elicited by a series of lawyers: Jonathan Lall as inquest counsel with co-counsel Kate Forget from the Indigenous Justice Division, and lawyers representing the victim’s family, the Elizabeth Fry Society (an advocacy organization for criminalized women) and the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

Wright detailed his experience as a correctional officer, his recollections of the night Blair died, and operational practices of the South West Detention Center.

“It was traumatic,” Wright said of his experience the night of May 21, 2017. He said he had been a correctional officer for less than a year at the time of Blair’s death.

That night, Wright detailed his shift started just before 7 pm Following shift changeover and a brief conversation with Blair about the television remote — equipment, including the remote, was taken from inmates and counted at shift change, before being returned — Wright testified that Blair seemed happy, “skipping” around the day room with the TV remote returned.

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In response to questions, Wright said he had received some mental-health training in corrections college, but didn’t have history with Blair or work within the mental health unit enough to know whether her behavior was a symptom of her mental health, or just pleasure at having the TV back, that night.

On a tour of the unit at 8 pm, Wright said he noticed that Blair was positioned in a way he said looked “uncomfortable:” wedged between the desk and bed, only the top of her head and her right leg visible from outside the cell . Wright said he attempted to speak with her and repeatedly knocked on the door.

In a video taken from a Southwest Detention Center security camera, the jury on Monday saw Wright gesture for his partner, triggering an emergency response, before they rushed into the cell and Wright testified they provided aid while medical and corrections staff arrived.

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There is no video from inside inmate cells, only the common area immediately outside the cell.

Emergency personnel, including EMS and firefighters are shown entering the cell by 8:14 pm

While the video shown to the inquest Monday stops there, Lall said that it was roughly the time Blair was taken from her cell to hospital. She was pronounced dead that evening.

An Indigenous woman and mother of four, the inquest heard Blair spent years in the Northwest Territories and Winnipeg before coming to Windsor. She was charged with robbery and admitted to the South West Detention Center on April 4, 2017.

One of the central questions inquest counsel posed Monday was when an AED (defibrillator) machine arrived on scene and when it was used.

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Wright also testified to details about the bedding used for inmates, the presence of a so-called “911 knife” to cut ligatures, how often correctional officer tour units to ensure inmate wellbeing, the process for inmate phone calls and the degree to which officers receive specialized mental health training.

The inquest expects to learn more about Blair’s background Tuesday, as her mother Selina McIntyre testifies, traveling from the Northwest Territories to attend the inquest into her daughter’s death.

The inquiry is expected to last nine days and hear from an estimated 17 witnesses.

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