In loving memory of Yannick Lepage

It comes with great sadness to announce that Yannick Lepage passed away Friday July 16th 2021.

Yannick was only 42 when he passed.

Early Sunday morning July 11th Yannick was assaulted in his home the attacker used a pair of bolt cutters as a weapon. Yannick took multiple blows to the back and top of his head causing him to go in and out of consciousness, Yannick’s significant other jumped on top of him to save his life then after chased the attacker out of the house. The police were called by a neighbour who heard the attack. When the RCMP arrived at the scene Yannick’s significant other, the neighbours and the landlord of the house they resided in were begging the RCMP to call an ambulance, explaining that Yannick was going in and out of consciousness and was in need medical attention right away. Instead of the police following protocol right away, they went inside the house, threatening to tear gas the house, cuffed Yannick and trashed the place. Smashing everything in sight, the house was left unliveable and all of the belongings in the house had to be thrown away.

They brought Yannick outside and an ambulance arrived on the scene. The paramedics refused to take Yannick to the hospital and briefly took his vitals claiming his blood pressure was normal which we know is not the case since Yannick suffered from extremely high blood pressure and he was going in and out of consciousness. They then made multiple derogatory comments towards Yannick some of the things that were said include “what a waste of tax payer’s money “, “he’s f***ing stupid” “goof” and more. They then left and the RCMP took Yannick into custody.

Monday July 12th Yannick spent that day complaining to the correction officers, his lawyer and significant other via phone call stating that he was in a lot of pain due to the assault, his vison was blurry and his head was “fuzzy”, he requested medical attention numerous of times. It is protocol that if an inmate is cleared by paramedics but is still complaining of pain or requesting medical attention the correction officer must bring them to a hospital to get cleared by a physician right away. Unfortunately, the protocols were not followed properly and Yannicks basic human rights were violated.

Tuesday 13th July, Yannick was found unresponsive in his jail cell by the correctional officers. He was then left in his cell without medical attention for 25 minutes as the correctional officers watched without trying to resuscitate him. Finally, when the paramedics arrived on the scene they administered CPR. Yannick was left in his cell for 25 minutes with limited oxygen going to his brain after going into cardiac arrest.

The paramedics brought him to Surrey memorial hospital right away after that he went into cardiac arrest two more times. He was put on life support and was exhausting every medical machine and medication possible. The hospital had placed Yannick in a medical coma as his heart was to weak and could not support the stress of him being awake. His organs began to fail. He was receiving an artificial kidney, as well as an artificial breathing machine, medication to give him a blood pressure as he would not have had one without it, he had around the clock care, multiple i.v machines going and much more.

The family and Yannicks lawyer was not contacted at all by Surrey pretrial. The family found out Yannick was in the ICU by another inmate who had contacted one of Yannicks family members saying they had heard Yannick was assaulted by the correction officers and was brought to the hospital. (These accusations have yet to be confirmed) Multiple family members contacted the RCMP and pretrial but were not given any information. Family members of Yannick contacted multiple hospitals. Surrey Memorial Hospital said they didn’t have anybody by the name of Yannick Lepage but had a john doe that matched his description but could not give any other information. It wasn’t until later that night his next of kin was contacted by the hospital it was by fluke they had this information from years prior when Yannick was admitted into the hospital due to assault injuries caused by correction officers.

When the family arrived at the hospital they were shocked to see Yannick on life support hand cuffed to the hospital bed. They were unable to hold his hand for hours. The correction officers there refused to un-handcuff yannick from the hospital bed as requested from the nurses and the family.

Finally, when the correction officers did shift change, the new guards were more than understanding and un-handcuffed him as he was in a medical induced coma and was not able to leave.

After examining Yannick we found that he suffered from a possible broken arm and multiple bruises and abrasions which were not caused from the previous attack or from CPR. It is believed that he was assaulted by the rcmp or correctional officers as the injuries happened after his assault.

Friday July 16th 2021 Yannick’s blood pressure fell to an all time low and sadly the doctors were unable to save him. Yannick passed at 1:30pm surrounded by his loved ones.

Yannick has faced injustice and systemic racism many of times due to him being an indigenous male. He has been assaulted by the rcmp and correctional officers before, they have also withheld medical services on multiple occasions.

This is not just an everyday story of an assault; this is a strong indigenous man who was racially profiled on numerous times. A man who was not given a shot at life due to the generational traumas he faced. A man who if Canada had the right resources for would have flourished. Sadly, that isn’t the case, Canada has done a wonderful job over the years of hiding what has happened and continues to happen to the indigenous people. This needs to end. We need to take a stand and fight for basic human rights, we need to come together as a community and get justice not just for Yannick but the tens of thousands of other indigenous people this has happened too.

Yannick was loved by so many people, Yannick has such a beautiful kind soul. He would and has taken the shirt off of his back to give to someone in need. He tried to

help everyone he can, even if it put him in a troubling situation. Yannick left behind a family that loved him tremendously.

Yannick left behind three beautiful children ages 22, 9 and 2.

We are asking for 20,000$ to cover funeral expenses, hand print castings for his three children, Celebration of life, Justice for Yannick Lepage t-shirts, Justice for Yannick Lepage flyers leading to our petition site in hopes to get the RCMP, Surrey pretrial, first responders and correctional officers investigated as well as covering any and all lawyer fees that will come in the future.

We are asking if you can not donate please share so his story will be heard. We demand justice, we demand peace, we demand basic human rights for ALL.