‘I should have let him stay home’: Haven Dubois inquest starts with mother, Richelle

Richelle Dubois remembers screaming for help as she pulled her 14-year-old son Haven out of a creek near her home in east Regina.

Through tears, Richelle told the jury how she was the first person to find her son, unresponsive, after he went missing.

The inquest into Haven’s death began on Monday at the Royal Hotel on Albert Street with coroner Brent Gough presiding.

Over the next four days, 13 witnesses are expected to testify at the inquest. The purpose of an inquest is not to assign guilt, but investigate what led up to a person’s death.

Haven Dubois was 14-years-old when he died on May 20, 2015. The Saskatchewan Coroner had ruled his death to be an accidental drowning, but Richelle always maintained foul play was involved in his death.

The morning Haven died, he asked his mother Richelle if he could stay home from school. Richelle, wanting to prioritize his education, said no.

Richelle said Haven may have wanted to stay home because she had just returned from a week long trip to Las Vegas, and he missed her.

“I should have said yes,” Richelle said. “I should have let him stay home.”

Richelle was questioned by Robin Ritter from the coroner’s counsel on Monday about Haven’s time at school.

The inquest heard Haven was in Gr. 9, and had only attended F.W. Johnson Collegiate for a few months before he died.

Haven attended three Regina schools during his Gr. 9 year, according to Richelle. Haven had attended Sheldon Williams Collegiate, but Richelle said he moved schools after he experienced pressure to join a gang. The inquiry heard from Richelle that Haven attended Harvest City Christian Academy, but was moved to F.W. Johnson Collegiate to be closer to home.

Richelle first found out her son was missing through a family member around 10 a.m., after Haven’s friend had brought by his shoes, jacket, and hat.

Richelle said she got the phone call alerting her Haven was missing while she was at work. She told the room how she rushed to the school. The schools administration had originally informed Richelle Haven was on a school field trip to White City but it was the first time Richelle had been informed of the trip.

After three attempts to confirm Haven was on the trip, the school administration said that Haven was not, she testified.

A school resource officer told Richelle to return home in case Haven turned up. Meanwhile, the school resource officer said that she was going to attempt to track Haven’s phone.

While Richelle waited, she went to look near the bench where Haven’s friend found his clothes, near the Pilot Butte Creek.

As she moved closer, she said the first thing she saw were Haven’s feet sticking out of the reeds.

“I just remember calling for someone to come and help me,” she said.

Richelle attempted to perform CPR with the help of a bystander, she told the inquiry.

Haven was pronounced dead at the Regina General Hospital.

The coroner’s report

Richelle told the inquest she was skeptical the Regina Police Service (RPS) had done a thorough investigation when she returned home from the hospital that evening.

She remembers feeling angry seeing Haven’s death had already been ruled as an accidental drowning on the news.

She started to search for her own answers, sending tips to RPS after speaking with different businesses.

When the coroner’s report came out in 2015, Richelle was concerned marijuana was listed as a contributing factor towards his death.

Richelle said she did not know that Haven had been smoking marijuana until after his death, but said he knew how dangerous drugs could be.

In a meeting with Regina Police Service and the coroner in 2016, she raised the concern that marijuana was a contributing factor to Haven’s death in the report — after the meeting, it was removed.

The Dubois family advocated for a national inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Boys, Men and Two Spirited people in 2023.

Six people were selected to be on the jury for the inquest. In coroner Brent Gough’s opening remarks, he put an emphasis that a jury split between Indigenous people and the general public be necessary.

Lawyers Rheane Worme and Mark Ebert spoke to the media on behalf of Richelle Dubois, who they’re representing.

“She’s exhausted,” Worme said. “She’s been working tirelessly for the last nine years to get to this point, and I don’t think her work is done yet.”

Worme said the inquiry process can be “not very satisfactory,” but these are important questions that need to be answered.

The inquest will resume at the Royal Hotel on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.