HALIFAX - The sister of a mentally ill Nova Scotia man whose death in a jail cell prompted a public inquiry is accusing the provincial government of trying to hide the actual cause of Howard Hyde's death.
Joanna Blair has written a scathing letter to Premier Darrell Dexter, saying she is shocked and saddened by the government's official response to the inquiry, released Thursday.
Blair says the government has "failed" her brother and all Nova Scotians because its response is at odds with the inquiry's conclusion that Hyde's death was caused by a struggle with guards whose restraint techniques may have interfered with his breathing.
Instead, Blair says, the government's response revives a medical examiner's conclusion that Hyde died of a condition known as excited delirium -- a finding rejected by the head of the inquiry, provincial court Judge Anne Derrick.
Blair says she pushed for a public inquiry because she never believed her brother died of excited delirium.
