Miranda Mamakwa was 31 and a mother of three when she died of a brain hemorrhage on Sept. 8. Her family says a federal program failed four times to get her to the specialists who were watching her heart, and on Friday they asked Ontario Provincial Police to investigate the people responsible for criminal negligence causing death.
Mamakwa, of Fort Severn First Nation in northern Ontario, had open-heart surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in April to replace a valve. She needed follow-up care in Thunder Bay, including testing for blood clots and monitoring on blood thinners. Fort Severn is a remote community, so she relied on the federal Non-Insured Health Benefits program (NIHB) to arrange her travel.
Her family says the program’s Sioux Lookout office did not arrange it on four occasions between May and August, including appointments with cardiovascular specialists. The nursing station in Fort Severn sent repeated requests, along with letters from her doctors, according to the family’s lawyer.
“This should never have happened to Miranda,” her parents, Eva Mamakwa and Mike Bluecoat, said in a statement. “They cost Miranda her life. They cost her children a future without their mother.” Her children are 7, 9 and 11.
Eva Mamakwa has said the faxes were sent more than once and that the agency told the family they never arrived. “I am holding NIHB accountable for my daughter’s passing,” she said.
The family’s lawyer, Julian Falconer, sent the letter to the OPP. “We have created an apartheid system in this country as it relates to the delivery of medical services to Indigenous people,” he said. The OPP did not respond to requests for comment.
Indigenous Services Canada says it is reviewing the case and introducing a simpler process for travel requests. Minister Mandy Gull-Masty said the family and the community “deserved answers.” None of the officials who handled the file have been named, and no one has been charged.
The Mamakwa case is not an isolated one in the region. More than a dozen First Nations and tribal councils filed a human rights complaint on Oct. 1 over missed medical travel. They are seeking $20,000 for each missed appointment, plus $20,000 per person for pain and suffering. Eabametoong First Nation reports about 50 missed appointments a month, and North Caribou First Nation almost 100 in the past year. Wunnumin Lake First Nation, home to about 800 people, counts 147 missed appointments between March 2025 and March 2026, according to Chief Archie Wabasse.
This summer, several hundred First Nations leaders and community members held a sit-in at the Sioux Lookout NIHB office to demand changes. The human rights complaint has yet to be heard.
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