Just days after the Regina Police Service made the RCMP review of Nadine Machiskinic’s death investigation public, the family is speaking out.
Members of the Machiskinic family have been vocal on their displeasure throughout the investigation, and on Monday, they reiterated that point.
“This RCMP report just validates what I’ve been saying all along. The investigators weren’t doing their jobs, and I’ve had to raise concerns over and over again,” said Delores Stevenson, Machiskinic’s aunt.
“I feel angry at the injustice.”
The investigation into Machiskinic’s death started in 2015 when her body was found at the bottom of a laundry chute at Regina’s Delta Hotel on Jan. 10.
An inquest heard that it was more than 60 hours before police were called about the death and more than a year before officers issued a public appeal for information about two men who were shown on surveillance video with someone who appeared to be Machiskinic.
It also took four months for officers to send for a toxicology report.
“This brings into question other investigations, how they’re being handled and how they’re being treated. I’m not going to sugar-coat anything because it was a very poor investigation,” Stevenson said.
Despite delays in the investigation, Regina police say they are confident the evidence shows that no one was criminally responsible for Machiskinic’s death.
However, they say, officers could have done a better job.
“Investigations are complex, and they’re not always perfect. In some cases, there’s going to be room for improvement, and that is the case here,” said Regina police Chief Evan Bray.
“I think what we are looking at is our willingness to be better as a result of this.”
The report contained 14 recommendations on how to improve similar types of investigations in the future, many of which have been implemented, according to police.
“The report is facts about what wasn’t done and what procedures should have been taken and the information that could have come out of that, had they been doing their jobs,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson said she hopes the issues brought forward throughout the investigation will help to improve similar situations down the road.
“This is important, not just for Nadine but for other families of missing and murdered and Indigenous women and for Indigenous people in general,” Stevenson said.
“We feel the injustice continually. We have to fight twice as hard just to get answers, just to get justice, and that’s not fair.”
A review of the investigation was requested by Bray in 2017 and carried out by the Saskatchewan RMCP.
Regina police first decided against making the review public but now say they thought it was only fair.
The Machiskinic family was given the review shortly after it was completed.