Dianne McClements murder highlights faults with Alberta fatality inquiries
No one knows better the human cost of Alberta's broken fatality inquiry system than the families of those it has personally failed.
Doug Culbert will never know if an inquiry could have helped prevent someone else from suffering the same needless death as his sister.
In 2012, Dianne McClements was working, alone and at night, at a Camrose group home when a 17-year-old boy stabbed her to death. The teen had a history of psychiatric problems.
Culbert hoped a fatality inquiry might shed light on his sister's death and produce recommendations to prevent similar tragedies. But he said Alberta's Fatality Review Board told him there would be no inquiry into McClements's death — and gave no explanation why.
"I was told I wasn't owed any," Culbert said in a telephone interview from his home in Qatar.
"I felt that her death was in vain," he said. "I mean, it was a senseless death anyway, and I really wanted something good to come out of it. I wanted, maybe, some more truth to come out of it. And I got neither."
McClements' killer, now 20, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Last week, a judge reserved decision on the sentencing applications and is expected to pass sentence within the next few months.
The selection of which deaths proceed to fatality inquiries, highlighted by the McClements case, is just one of many problems which persist with Alberta's dysfunctional fatality inquiry system.
Alberta Justice is well aware of the problems. They are detailed in the ministry's own document, a 2014 internal review obtained by CBC News. The system doesn't place enough emphasis on preventing deaths. Alberta holds too many fatality inquiries. Some deaths receive inquiries when they should not. Some deaths, which need fatality inquiries, do not get them.
Unanswered questions
Culbert wanted to know how this teen, with a history of psychiatric problems, was assessed and deemed safe to be placed in the group home. Why was his sister working alone at night? Why was there no panic button installed in the group home?
The passing of three years has dulled some of the pain of his sister's horrible death. But he said the hurt remains that the province did not see the value in examining the circumstances around the death, and whether it could have been prevented.
"So I guess, to me, this is like how little her life was worth," Culbert said. "And the tragedy really meant nothing to anyone except the family."
The fix to the system is also detailed in the internal ministry document. It says the provincial government should eliminate the Fatality Review Board. Three death-review committees — one each for children, adults, and seniors — would take its place. The committees, comprised of experts, would issue their own recommendations, track preventable deaths, and — if necessary — recommend a fatality inquiry to the justice minister.
But in an interview with CBC News, Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley conceded she didn't know anything about the fatality inquiry review, its findings or its recommendations. Despite this, last month, she ordered yet another review to determine "whether changes are needed to serve Albertans better." She didn't know when that review might be completed.
Culbert has given up hope of any sort of closure a fatality inquiry might bring.
But he would like to see change. The provincial government should track and enforce the recommendations from fatality inquiries, Culbert said, and they should also be compiled in a public database.
"It may not prevent what happened but it certainly could prevent what could happen again," he said.
