No apology given for Silverfox death: daughter

The daughter of Raymond Silverfox, the Yukon man who died in RCMP cells in 2008, says she is still waiting for the police force to give her an apology for the way officers treated her father in his dying hours.

Deanna Lee Charlie, 21, said she will fight the RCMP over its treatment of Silverfox, who spent 13 hours in the Whitehorse detachment's drunk tank before he died on Dec. 2, 2008.

A coroner's inquest last month heard that RCMP officers and guards had mocked and ridiculed Silverfox, 43, as he vomited profusely and laid in a pool of his own excrement.

Officers also did not check on Silverfox's health during that 13-hour period, until someone noticed he was not moving. He died in hospital of acute pneumonia a short time later, the inquest heard.

No direct apology

Last week, shortly after the inquest ended, Yukon RCMP Supt. Peter Clark issued a news release apologizing for Silverfox's treatment in custody, saying the police failed to live up to its standards.

"They're saying that they're apologizing to us," Charlie told CBC News in an interview this week. "It seems like [it's] just to the newspaper and the media and to the public ... not to us."

While Clark's statement expressed regret over Silverfox's death and offered condolences to his family, Charlie said Clark did not contact the family directly.

"It seems like they're just hiding something, or don't want to be face to face with people what really happened," Charlie said.

"They don't want to face their problems of what happened, what they did."

Questions remain

Charlie said she still has many questions about why her father was allowed to die in a cell, covered in his own vomit and feces, while he was ridiculed and cursed by detachment staff.

Despite repeated inquests by CBC News, the RCMP has not agreed to an interview about the Silverfox case to date.

Charlie said she is not afraid to take on the police force on her father's behalf.

"Just because I'm 21, they probably think that I'm not going to fight against the RCMP and that I'm young and afraid of them," she said.

"I'm standing up for the rights of my dad, and that justice needs to be served. And I'm not stopping until that's done."