§ 06 / Actors

The institutions named in this case.

No individual employee is named beyond what is established in the public testimony of the inquest. The case is about the apparatus.

01subject institution

Regina General Hospital · Emergency Department

Saskatchewan Health Authority · 1440 14th Avenue, Regina

One of two Regina hospitals operating the regional emergency department network. The site of both of Samwel Uko's hospital visits on 21 May 2020. By the SHA's own subsequent classification, the location of a "critical incident" — its statutory term for a serious adverse health event with potential or actual loss of life related to health-system care.⁹

critical-incident location SHA-operated

02governing body

Saskatchewan Health Authority

Provincial Crown corporation · est. 2017

The single provincial health authority responsible for all hospital, primary-care, and mental-health services in Saskatchewan. Issued the public apology on 23 July 2020. Filed the statement of defence with admission of failure to meet the standard of care in March 2021. Paid the $81,357 settlement to the Uko family under the Fatal Accidents Act. Will be responsible for implementing the inquest's 20 recommendations. Has not, on the public record, separately published a review of whether standard suicidality protocols were executed on 21 May 2020.¹³⁵

admitted standard-of-care failure $81,357 settlement implementer of recommendations

03processing body

Saskatchewan Coroners Service

Provincial Ministry of Justice · statutory authority under The Coroners Act, 1999

The body that conducted the public inquest. Inquest Coroner Robert Kennedy presided. The Service's statutory mandate excludes findings of liability, racism, or protocol deviation; its outputs are determinations of manner and cause of death and forward-looking recommendations. The inquest was originally scheduled for September 2021 and postponed citing COVID-19 protocols; it convened in May 2022. Selection of witnesses, framing of recommendations, and management of family communications are at the discretion of the inquest coroner and inquest counsel.¹⁵

statutory mandate no liability findings

04commissioning authority

Government of Saskatchewan

Premier Scott Moe · Ministers of Health and Justice (2020–2022)

Premier Scott Moe announced in July 2020 that the Coroners Service would conduct a public inquest into Samwel Uko's death. The provincial government — also the constituting authority of the Saskatchewan Health Authority — was the political body responsible for choosing whether the inquest would be the only public proceeding examining this matter. It declined to call a separate public inquiry, an inquest under broader terms of reference, or a Crown investigation into the conduct of the institution in its care.²⁰

declined broader inquiry political authority

05private party

The family of Samwel Uko

Joice Guya Issa Bankando · Taban Uko · Justin Nyee · others

The family of the deceased. Refugees from South Sudan to Canada in 2005. Parents resident in Abbotsford, BC; aunt in Regina. Reached a settlement with the SHA in 2020–2021 under conditions Taban Uko has publicly described as not arm's length. Travelled from Vancouver to Regina to attend the inquest. Spoke publicly during and after the inquest about feeling re-traumatized by the process. Has continued to call for accountability beyond the inquest's mandate, including for individuals who participated in Samwel's removal from the hospital.¹⁴¹⁹

settled under pandemic conditions re-traumatized by inquest