THUNDER BAY — Molly Boyce, one of the first clients of the Kwae Kii Win managed alcohol program at the Thunder Bay Shelter House, told the jury in the coroner’s inquest examining the deaths of two Indigenous men while in police custody that the program lives up to its Oji-Cree name meaning ‘turning point,’ but more resources are still needed in the city.
“The turning point seemed appropriate because the program gave us hope when we were there. When I was in Kwae Kii Win, that was the first place that showed me I mattered. That I was a person,” Boyce said.
“Kwae Kii Win was the first place for me that was the stepping stone for where I am today. Don [Mamakwa] saw that place as a turning point too. He named it like that.”
Boyce, along with Thunder Bay Shelter House executive director Cal Rankin, testified on Monday — the 13th day — of the coroner’s inquest examining the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mamakwa and Roland McKay.
Mamakwa, 44, of Kasabonika First Nation died on Aug. 3, 2014. McKay, 50, of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, died on July 19, 2017.
The testimony on Monday focused on programs and services available to people experiencing homelessness and addiction in Thunder Bay.
Both Mamakwa and McKay were experiencing homelessness when they were arrested for public intoxication by the Thunder Bay Police Service and later died in custody in lockup at the Balmoral Street police station.
Boyce shared her experiences of becoming involved in the Kwae Kii Win program in 2012 after it first opened to address her alcohol and substance abuse issues.
The 15-bed Kwae Kii Win Centre, operated by Thunder Bay Shelter House, provides harm reduction services through managed alcohol consumption for clients experiencing chronic alcohol abuse.
According to Rankin, when the program first opened, there was a lot of push back from some people in the community. While it was agreed something needed to be done to address addiction issues, those in opposition did not believe in providing people with substances.
“It’s to reduce the harm of drinking of non-palatable [substances] that make people so sick,” Rankin said. “They were seriously ill people who were coming off the street into this program. It’s simply to reduce the harms of that substance use by providing a less harmful substance.”
Mamakwa was a client of the Kwae Kii Win Centre at the same time as Boyce and he helped come up with the name.
Prior to enrolling in the program, Boyce said she was into "everything you could think of not to think," and Kwae Kii Win helped change that mindset.
“Kwae Kii Win is where I regained my spirit,” she said. “It gave me back my life because I don’t need to drink. With the Kwae Kii Win program, I see it as so much more, to bring more people back to their families. That program gave me back my family.”
After successfully completing the program, Boyce has returned to school for a degree in nursing and she is currently working at the Shelter House.
She said she wished more people in the city understood the importance of the program and what it can give to people like her who are struggling.
“We need to hear from people who have survived the program, who have survived on the street,” Rankin added. “I think we need to look to our clients of these services and have them educate the community. That is the strongest way to do that. The community has a hard time seeing that sometimes. It can be difficult. But Molly is one of the best success stories we have.”
Before his death in 2014, Mamakwa was removed from the Kwae Kii Win program because of what Rankin described as an incident involving violence and the staff.
But Boyce said Mamakwa believed in the program and while it has seen success, she said more needs to be done.
“I’m sad that someone has to die for people to see. Because he was a good brother for me. We will remember him. [Mamakwa] also believed it could be much more. Like I do,” she said. “There needs to be more investment. It’s just so sad when I hear life is measured in funding.”
Rankin, who served as the executive director of Thunder Bay Shelter House for 12 years until 2012 and recently returning to the role again earlier this year, also testified to the need for more housing options in the city.
“I don’t believe in shelters. I think everyone should be housed,” he said. “I really believe an emergency shelter should be an emergency shelter and just that. We require housing in the community.”
Adding that the need in the city is "cavernous," Rankin said the Street Outreach Service (SOS) program, which shut down in September of this year, has been truly missed.
The SOS program provided mobile outreach services to homeless people and in the three years it was operating it travelled more than 300,000 kilometres in the city.
The program costs approximately $330,000 a year to operate and it received $116,000 from the city, as well as an additional $50,000 from the Social Services Administration Board with the Shelter House making up the balance.
“We didn’t really have much options moving forward with SOS due to lack of funding we received,” Rankin said. “We budgeted for SOS this year but we lost some funding and that created a huge imbalance in the budget that I was forced to address.”
Rankin said there needs to be a source of sustainable funding for a program like the SOS and it should also be expanded to provide more services, including a nurse or medical practitioner to be part of the team to help police and EMS divert people away from the emergency department or being placed in custody.
Vulnerable individuals also already face stigmas in the community and Rankin believes those who suffer from addiction are even more marginalized, which can make accessing services even more difficult, particularly for Indigenous people.
“Obviously they carry a lot of guilt and shame which has led to their addiction to some extent,” he said. “Society in general frowns on that and makes judgments on these people. I think they are not accepted anywhere. Systemically we discriminate against this population whether we know it or not.”
Rankin said because the need in the city is so great, there needs to be a unified approach to developing strategies and programs, such as the SOS program, to assist people who are homeless and living with addiction.
“I think the community has underestimated the problem we do have here,” he said. “We need the service. With the lack of affordable, appropriate housing the services are required more than ever because we don’t have the housing. Until we address the need we won’t be able to turn that around.”
Testimony in the coroner’s inquest will continue on Tuesday.
