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This article was published 15/10/2010 (3638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES A family member holds a portrait of Brian Sinclair, whose death in 2008 is now the subject of a police investigation.

Brian Sinclair's emergency room death -- which has already sparked a civil suit and is scheduled to come under an inquest's microscope -- will now be the subject of a criminal probe.

However, the province's medical examiner, who earlier dropped the bombshell that Health Sciences Centre security cameras recorded the double-amputee's attempts to get care, says there's "no necessity" for a Winnipeg Police Service investigation.

"Nobody intended to kill this man, nobody wanted him dead." Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra said Friday.

Police involvement in the two-year-old Sinclair case will delay the inquest Balachandra ordered in 2009 to get to the bottom of why Sinclair was left to wait 34 hours for simple treatment of a bladder infection that would have saved his life.

The criminal investigation comes more than six months after lawyer Clayton Ruby, who was speaking for Sinclair's family, called for a police probe. Ruby had publicly criticized police for failing to launch a criminal investigation into the actions of hospital staff, calling it "shocking" and "inexplicable."

Police said their decision to launch a criminal investigation came after getting documents and materials related to Sinclair's death.

"We have determined that an investigation into this incident is warranted," said police spokeswoman Const. Natalie Aitken. "That being said, that should not be any reason to construe that any manner of wrongdoing has been determined as of this time."

Sinclair family lawyer Vilko Zbogar said while the police investigation will delay the inquest, it's needed to clear up any concerns a criminal act occurred.

The Sinclair family has pushed for a public inquiry to examine the treatment of aboriginal people by Manitoba's health-care system. The inquest will only examine the circumstances of Sinclair's death.

"It's just amazing how much effort the Sinclairs have had to go through to achieve the smallest thing," Zbogar said. Meantime, the family continues to press on with its lawsuit against the HSC and WRHA.

"The civil claim is not affected by the criminal process," Zbogar said.

A statement from police last March said they'd never received "any suggestion" there was evidence of criminal wrongdoing concerning Sinclair's death. Police said then the only contact police had with the medical examiner's investigators involved alerting Sinclair's relatives of his death.

On Friday, Ruby said he was surprised it's taken so long for the police to investigate.

"I speculate that someone important tried to stop the investigation or it would not have taken this long," Ruby said. "Legally, it's a simple question, and not very debatable."

A statement from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said officials were co-operating with police.

"The region has acknowledged that mistakes were made and that Mr. Sinclair's death was a tragedy that could have been prevented.

"For that we sincerely apologized to the family," the statement said.

The statement also said two reviews of Sinclair's death showed "while mistakes were made and opportunities missed, no one person was individually responsible. We believe the police investigation will reach the same conclusion."

Health Minister Theresa Oswald said she hopes any delay to the inquest won't be substantial. Asked for her reaction to the fact that hospital workers are the subject of a police investigation, Oswald said: "We have always maintained that a full review would be needed to get to the bottom of all of the details that happened in this tragic death, this preventable death." She said the government's focus is to ensure that such a tragedy doesn't occur again. "If this investigation that the Winnipeg Police Service believes it needs to pursue is going to provide us with more information, I welcome that. To be frank, I've never said otherwise," Oswald said.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

-- with files from Larry Kusch and CP