Haven Dubois inquest begins with mother’s emotional testimony

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On the day he died, 14-year-old Haven Dubois asked his mother whether he could stay home from school.

But Richelle Dubois decided her son needed to go because education is important, she told a jury of six on Monday as the first witness to testify at an inquest into her son’s death on May 20, 2015.

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“I sent him to school that day,” she said, struggling with emotions that would surface at times throughout the morning.

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Richelle could only speculate about why he wanted to stay home, testifying that she didn’t ask for an explanation and he didn’t elaborate.

Later, Haven was found unresponsive in Pilot Butte Creek on the east end of Regina, and efforts to revive him failed.

At the beginning of Monday’s proceeding at Royal Hotel Regina, coroner Brent Gough told those present that an effort would be made to select a jury comprised of three people with Indigenous ancestry and three people from the “general population.”

When the jury had been selected, Gough instructed them that the proceeding is not a trial, but will seek to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death.

Under questions from coroner’s councel Robin Ritter, the jury heard that Haven was in Grade 9 when he died. He’d only been attending F.W. Johnson Collegiate for a short time before his death, Richelle said, having told Ritter her son had previously attended two other schools during the same year.

At the first school, she said, Haven told her he’d experienced pressure to participate in street gangs by getting into fights and wearing gang colours (often shown through the display of a coloured bandana).

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He was then moved to a private school, but later switched to F.W. Johnson because it was more convenient, Richelle told Ritter.

The mother was asked whether she had conversations with her son about drug use, and she told Ritter that she and her son “had discussions.”

“I did not come out and ask him if he was doing drugs,” she said.

Richelle testified that, while she wasn’t aware her son was using drugs at the time, she now knows Haven used marijuana prior to his death. However, she said she’s unaware of how often he used the drug, or if he’d used it more than once.

Ritter led her through the morning of the incident. Richelle testified that she’d been working when she was notified that some of her son’s possessions had been brought to her home by one of his friends and there was an uncertainty about Haven’s location.

She described a frantic scene afterward that involved her calling the school in an effort to track down her son. As it happened, he was meant to be on a class field trip. After pressing the school, which had initially informed her Haven was at school, it was determined he was not on the field trip, she testified.

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Richelle spoke of speeding through the city to the school and then returning home on police advice. She became very emotional and asked for a break after describing how a police officer told her they would make an effort to track Haven’s cellphone.

Her testimony had not concluded by press time.

bharder@postmedia.com 

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