Prince Albert Grand Council meets with leaders after recent hospital security incidents

Prince Albert Grand Council hosted a meeting with community partners and Indigenous leaders about recent hospital security incident. Jasmine Pelletier reports.

Recent hospital incidents, including a video of a man lying in the snow outside Victoria Hospital that was shared widely on social media, have led the Prince Albert Grand Council (PAGC) to take action.

“We know about the challenges that are out there,” said PAGC Vice Chief Joseph Tsannie. “We kindly ask, you know, the security companies to respect our people, our Indigenous women and men that are out there that are struggling with addictions.”

PAGC hosted a meeting Friday with community leaders to discuss ways to deal with security incidents. Investigations into some incidents is ongoing.

“We didn’t want to wait till the investigation is done,” said Grand Chief Brian Hardlotte.

“We went ahead and initiated this meeting, you know, to have this meeting because I guess I’m tired of, you know, getting the videotapes, video and video shots of people, how they’re treated.”

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In attendance were representatives from the municipal police, fire department, the City of Prince Albert and local security companies along with Indigenous leaders.

Lions Security was not involved in the recent incident at Victoria Hospital, but CEO Leo Ekhaguere said this meeting gave him some ideas for staff training.

“When you are dealing with homeless people, they want to get under your skin, know that you’re not dealing with that individual,” said Ekhaguere.

“You are dealing with an addiction to drugs, to alcohol and to several other addictions. Not the person in question.”

He said understanding the cultural perspective of security interactions will be a focus for the company.

The goal of the meeting was to re-examine policies for security companies and to find short term goals that can be accomplished in the next few months that will lead toward heightened cultural sensitivity.

PAGC will host additional meetings in the near future.