Most in-custody deaths preventable, study finds

More than 2,000 have died in detention in Canada since 2000, spurring calls for accountability

- MARK RAMZY

Mike Martin, with his sister Chantel, was one of 2,131 people who have died in custody since 2000, according to Canada's first database to record such deaths, released last week by the Tracking (In)Justice project.

Nearly four years later, Martha Martin is still looking for answers.

In November 2020, her 23-yearold son Mike Martin died by suicide while in custody at a pretrial centre in British Columbia. That was just five months after her daughter, Chantel Moore, 26, was shot to death by a police officer in New Brunswick.

After two coroners examined her son’s death, Martin still had unanswered questions. What happened to the clothes he was wearing when he died? Why did doctors prescribe him so many different pills?

“How are we ever going to have this whole story?” she said in an interview, struggling to hold back tears.

Now, his case has been handed over to yet a third coroner.

But the deaths of her two children in interactions with law enforcement have left her frustrated and discouraged, she told the Star.

“I feel like that’s the route they want me on, is to feel defeated,” she said. “It feels like there is no accountability.”

Mike Martin was one of at least 2,131 people who have died in custody across the country since 2000, according to Canada’s first database to record such deaths, which was released last week by the Tracking (In)Justice project.