Delores Stevenson, Nadine Machiskinic’s aunt. File photo.
The laundry chute death of a young Indigenous woman and the impact it had on her family was outlined this morning, as the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls opened its hearings in Saskatoon.
Delores Stevenson says there were undertones of racism right from the beginning on the way authorities handled the death of her niece, Nadine Machiskinic.
She fell 10 floors to her death down the laundry chute of the Regina Delta Hotel in January of 2015.
Paramedics and hotel staff assumed she was just passed out and drunk, the coroner did not even notify police for 60 hours and the autopsy on the manner of death was changed from undetermined to accidental, then back to undetermined.
Stevenson says no one took the case seriously.
“This is just not right, this is not right that my niece fell from a laundry chute and no one is taking it seriously,” she said.
Stevenson also said she had great difficulty finding anyone to help her in her quest for justice, taking it on herself by reliving and retelling the horrible story of her niece’s death over and over again.
Stevenson says police bungled the investigation, there were errors in the coroner’s office and yet not one person has been held accountable.