A law firm says not only do Regina police have a lot to answer for in the events surrounding the death of Nadine Machiskinic, so does the local hotel where her body was found.
The 29-year-old Indigenous woman was found at the bottom of a laundry chute in the Delta Hotel in January 2015 and later died in hospital.
Koralee Zawislak is a lawyer for the Merchant Law Group which is representing Machiskinic’s family in a lawsuit against the hotel.
She says it is clear the Delta Hotel was negligent in a number of respects.
“The laundry chute was unlocked, the room to get into the laundry room was unlocked, the laundry room in the basement was unlocked,” she says.
Zawislak says it is also unclear why many of Machiskinic’s personal items were disposed of and why hotel staff did not contact police when her body was discovered.
In fact, police would not be contacted until two days later.
The Regina lawyer adds it is clear racism played a role in how events surrounding Machiskinic’s death were responded to.
She says both hotel staff and Regina police simply did not demonstrate the due diligence and attention to detail they would have had a Caucasian person been involved.
“I don’t think if it was a Caucasian person that she would have been treated the same way by the hotel, by the Regina city police.”
It is also still unknown why it was initially assumed Machiskinic was suffering from and died from the effects of a drug overdose.
In fact, she died from injuries sustained from falling 10 stories in the laundry chute.
An RCMP review of the Regina police investigation into Machiskinic’s death was released last week.
It says the investigation failed in terms of accountability and case management.
(PHOTO: Nadine Machiskinic. Photo courtesy of Justice for Nadine Facebook page.)