Woman who died of overdose in C.D.N.-N.D.G. shelter was loved, family says

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Around 11 p.m. on the night of Dec. 15, Ikidluak Lee Padlayat, a 30-year-old Inuk woman, made her way to an emergency warming centre in Montreal to spend the night.

Padlayat was visibly intoxicated upon arrival, having battled addictions for years. Another client staying overnight could hear her taking laboured breaths once in bed, but noticed she grew quieter as the hours stretched on.

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Come morning, an intervention worker would find Padlayat unresponsive in bed. She was pronounced dead two hours later from an accidental overdose.

“We loved her very much,” Padlayat’s father, Joanasie Papigatuk, said this week when reached by phone in Salluit, at the northern tip of Quebec. “Every time we asked her to come back home, she said she wanted to stay in Montreal.”

The details surrounding Padlayat’s death were confirmed in a coroner’s report made public on June 1. Her death comes among a worsening homelessness and addiction crisis in Montreal that continues to claim lives at an alarming rate.

The warming centre where Padlayat died, in the city’s Côte-Des-Neiges — Notre-Dame-De-Grâce borough, had come under criticism this winter when neighbours raised security and public safety concerns.

The borough has said it is reviewing the project before deciding how to move forward with it next year.

Contacted for this article, the director general of Prévention CDN-NDG, which oversaw the service, described Padlayat’s death as tragic and assured the centre had the necessary measures in place that night.

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“The death of any member of our community is a tragedy, particularly among our most vulnerable populations,” Camille Vaillancourt wrote in an email response.

Vaillancourt said the centre was staffed with a team trained in first aid, conflict de-escalation, and how to administer naloxone, which can be life-saving in reversing the effects of an opioid overdose.

It hosted an average of 47 people per night throughout the winter. Vaillancourt did not specify how many people staffed the centre each night.

“In cases of emergency, such as the case in December, we respond as quickly as possible and work closely with authorities,” Vaillancourt said, adding the shelter is always reviewing its protocols. “We were saddened these efforts were not enough in this case.”

According to the coroner’s report, Padlayat likely died of respiratory depression brought on by overdosing on methadone, an opioid drug that relieves pain and is often used to reduce withdrawal symptoms. Padlayat was known to have an alcohol addiction, but an autopsy found none in her system.

“Examination of the premises and Mrs. Padlayat’s personal effects did not reveal the presence of any drug paraphernalia, alcohol, drugs or medication,” coroner Donald Nicole also wrote in the report.

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A police investigation found no signs of violence or indications any one else was involved in her death, Nicole added. Padlayat also did not leave behind any “written evidence of suicidal intent.”

Padlayat did not have a prescription for methadone, the report states, so she likely procured it on the streets. People who knew her among the city’s homeless community, where she was known as Annie, told The Gazette they were surprised she would take methadone, as she usually stayed away from opioid use.

Her father said Padlayat came to Montreal about six years ago, initially for a medical appointment. Like many Inuit women who come to the city, he said, she struggled to find her footing. She fell into her alcohol addiction and ended up unhoused.

She would often lose her identification, Papigatuk explained, making it difficult for her to access services or return to Salluit, as her parents hoped for.

“We know she was drinking heavily, that happened to her sometimes, but I believe she was given stronger drugs … that her body was not able to handle,” Papigatuk said.

Her parents regret she wasn’t able to get the help she needed and return home, he added.

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“We are still grieving today,” he said. “She had contacted us a few times before she passed away, saying how much she loved us and her family.”

While living on the streets, Padlayat often frequented the Resilience Montreal day centre across from Cabot Square. But it remains unclear how she ended up at the Côte-Des-Neiges shelter the night she died.

Two nights before, she had been in Kahnawake with a man she had been seeing recently, Joe Williams.

In an interview this week, Williams said Padlayat was intoxicated and acting erratic that evening, so police were called in hopes she would be brought to the station for the night.

The Kahnawake Mohawk Peacekeepers picked her up, he said, but it wasn’t clear to him where they brought her. The police force could not be reached for comment on this article.

Williams last heard from Padlayat in a voicemail she left minutes before midnight. She was in LaSalle, he says, on the other side of the Mercier Bridge. He only heard the message the next morning.

Williams had a friend drive him around to places in Montreal where he thought Padlayat might be, including several shelters, but no one seemed to know where she was.

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He learned of her death through her mother shortly after.

“It was devastating,” he said. “I wish I didn’t tell her to go, but I couldn’t have her (at home) like that,” he added. “I didn’t know it would be the last time I would see her.”

On Wednesday, Padlayat was among those honoured at a memorial in Cabot Square for more than 30 unhoused people who died in Montreal in recent years. More than half the deceased were Indigenous women.

Maggie Chittspattio, an intervention worker with Resilience Montreal, remembered Padlayat as both one of the centre’s toughest clients to deal with and someone she grew to love like a daughter.

She could come across as guarded and would test people to know if she could trust them, Chittspattio said, but was all hugs and warmth once she did.

Only two weeks before she died, Padlayat sought out Chittspattio at the centre to ask for a safe consumption kit. Chittspattio warned her there seemed to be a tainted drug supply making the rounds. There had been an overdose recently. She pleaded with her to be careful.

To learn of her death so soon after was a shock.

“I had just opened up to her,” Chittspattio said, visibly emotional. “She was special to me, very special.”

jfeith@postmedia.com

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