Although police have closed the case and are calling Gabriel Bernard’s death non-suspicious, the Ottawa man’s seven older siblings say they are looking for answers after he was found unconscious downtown near the Rideau Canal in the early morning hours of July 2 — his 35th birthday.
He died in hospital three days later.
“There’s still no cause of death,” said Bernard’s oldest sister Sarah Ingall from her home in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. “They’ve done a forensic autopsy … we won’t get results for eight weeks to six months. Basically, the cops have told us they’ve put it in the coroner’s hands now.”
A spokesperson for the Office of the Chief Coroner confirmed the results of the post-mortem examination could take months to finalize.
He didn’t have a secret life or anything like that. It doesn’t make sense.– Gabriel Bernard’s older sister, Sarah Ingall
In a media release issued two days after Bernard was discovered unresponsive, police said he’d suffered a medical emergency. This week, Ottawa Police confirmed by email that the investigation is now closed and Bernard’s death has been deemed non suspicious.
“He was so healthy,” said another of Bernard’s sisters, Melissa Harnum. “How does this happen? I just don’t understand why this is not suspicious, especially after they found us and we said, ‘No, he has no health issues.'”
According to his family, Bernard worked as a mover and lived in a rooming house near Algonquin College. He was an amazing little brother and a great uncle, said Ingall.
What happened to Gabriel Bernard?
“There was no signs of him getting beat up,” she added. “I asked the doctor, there’s no aneurysm. It doesn’t add up.
“When we got to his place, his keys were still there, his ID was there. His bank card was there. His cigarettes were there. Like, it just doesn’t make sense.”
A toxicology report taken at the hospital did not point to any serious drugs in his system either, said Ingall. The family has since requested a copy of that report.
“Nobody knows what happened to him between 10 o’clock at night and when he was found at 2 in the morning,” she said.
As far as the family knows, Bernard had been celebrating Canada Day with his friend, Shea Upstone, at Britannia Beach.
“He was good. He was healthy. He wasn’t drinking. He was smoking his weed,” said Upstone, 34, who had been friends with Bernard since Grade 1. “There was nothing to suggest anything was wrong.”
Upstone describes Bernard as a funny guy who was particular about his passions: he loved Planet of the Apes movies, gorillas and the videos games of his childhood. He liked living off-grid and making his own food.
Upstone said he dropped Bernard off at his home after the fireworks, around 10:30 p.m.
He never really got to experience the best parts of life. He never got to travel. He never got to fall in love with a girl. He never got to have a career that he was proud of.– Shea Upstone, longtime friend
“I had no idea he was even going to go downtown,” he said.
Upstone said he wants to know what happened.
“It sounded like an aneurysm or like a really heavy stroke. But they should be able to tell that right away. It shouldn’t be a mystery,” he said.
As the last person known to have seen Bernard, he said it’s also surprising police never contacted him.
Police said initially Bernard was found near the Rideau Canal at Rideau Street and Colonel By Drive, but have since clarified he was actually found near the Westin Hotel and that paramedics performed CPR.
“For a long time we didn’t know where the location was even, which was very frustrating,” said another of Bernard’s sisters, Naomi Bernard. “He’s a human being. He’s not just a throwaway. And they couldn’t even get the location down to us. That was very upsetting.”
Police did not know Bernard’s identity when he was found. They released photographs of two tattoos on his right forearm in the hopes someone would recognize them.
“He was found with no ID, no phone on him and so there was no next of kin to call because he was unidentified,” said Ingall. By chance, Ingall saw a news article about an unidentified man and knew those tattoos belonged to her brother.
“(My family) showed me the picture and said, ‘Is that Gabe’s tattoo?’ And I fell on the ground crying because I remember his tattoos, right?” said Harnum. “I knew the police don’t just put out reports like that for nothing.”
Ingall said she flew to Ottawa the day she saw the image of her brother’s tattoos.
“They tried to keep him on life support so we could come and say goodbye,” she said.
But Ingall and the rest the family were too late. Bernard passed away shortly before midnight on July 5, before they arrived.
“We met with the ICU doctor after his passing and basically they explained that he was found unresponsive and it took the paramedics about 20 minutes to revive him and at that point the brain has been without oxygen for a long time,” said Ingall.
In the week following his death, Ingall met with police and spoke to the coroner. She printed off flyers and posted them around the Byward Market, hoping to learn more details about what happened to Bernard.
“My sister and I plastered them throughout downtown and even throughout the city in different areas he hung out,” she said.
The sisters also issued social media posts asking for the public’s help.
“I don’t know what else to do,” said Ingall. “We have to wait for this (post-mortem) report hoping it will come up with something. He was very healthy. He was 35.
“He didn’t have a secret life or anything like that. It doesn’t make sense.”
“The hardest part for me about all this is that he never really got to experience the best parts of life,” said Upstone.
“He never got to travel. He never got to fall in love with a girl. He never got to see anything besides this little spot in the world. He never got to have a career that he was proud of. He always talked about becoming a carpenter.”