Indigenous artist needed hospital care, not jail, family tells inquest

The three sons of a renowned Indigenous artist wept at an inquest into their father’s death as they detailed the mental health issues he struggled with before he died at a Thunder Bay jail. Moses Beaver, of Nibinamik First Nation, was 56-years-old when he was found unresponsive in a jail cell in February 2017 before being taken to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, where he was pronounced dead by suicide. Shallum Beaver told the inquest his father’s mental health deteriorated after his wife died and that loss triggered trauma linked to time spent in a day school designed to assimilate Indigenous children into society. He says his father had been hallucinating and hearing voices before he was arrested at a health centre where he had turned violent. He…

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