Photo courtesy Alberta Government

By Erika Rolling

ASIRT

No criminal liability following ASIRT investigation of High Prairie RCMP’s lack of care for diabetic man

May 11, 2022 | 5:20 PM

Officers with the High Prairie RCMP have been found not criminally liable after failing to provide the necessaries of life for a diabetic man that was in their custody by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team.

On August 8, 2018, ASIRT was directed to investigate the hospitalization of a 38-year-old diabetic man after being in the custody of the High Prairie detachment for almost three days.

The man had been intoxicated and walking on the highway on August 3, 2018, at around 11:15 p.m. when an officer arrested him for outstanding warrants. He was on conditions including a curfew at 11:00 p.m.

The report says the man told officers he was diabetic and asked for a meal when they arrived at the detachment, which was noted on forms during his screening process but he did not receive any medication during his time in custody.

On August 6, 2018, officers checked on the man at least every 15 minutes, with him giving a thumbs up in response to guards. At around 7 p.m. a guard had noticed the man was ‘shaky and feeling unwell’ before notifying an officer, who then called EMS.

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EMS attended and found the diabetic man’s blood sugar was high and he had had diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of not receiving insulin.

The man stayed in hospital until August 8, 2018, and was transported to the High Prairie detachment before transferring to the Peace River Correctional Centre.

A lack of communication between officers on shift changes, confusion on who was to check on prisoners and the lack of in-depth and purposeful checks on the prisoner during day shifts, led to the man in custody requiring medical attention according to ASIRT’s investigation.

In the conclusion of the investigation by ASIRT’s Assistant Executive Director, Matthew Block states; “While this was a failure of the High Prairie Detachment as a whole, the conduct of each individual subject officer does not rise to the level of criminal liability. There are no reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence was committed.”