There are limited options for the homeless and addicted of Whitehorse; often the responsibility of caring for the city's most desperate and needy residents falls on the shoulders of the privately run Salvation Army shelter, which is staffed by just two people with minimal first aid training and equipment.

When the Salvation Army can't handle one of their clients – because the person is acting aggressively or simply because he or she needs a level of care the shelter cannot provide – the only options the staff have are to call either the police or the ambulance.

Both are often inappropriate solutions, according to longtime shelter employee Judy Lightning, and a "stopgap” measure is needed.

Her comments came during the second day of testimony in the inquest into the death of Raymond Silverfox, who died in RCMP custody 16 hours after being picked up from the shelter and put into the drunk tank.

"We're expected to be more than we're equipped to be,” she said of the Salvation Army's role as the city's de facto emergency social services provider.

In the early-morning hours of Dec. 2, 2008, the day Silverfox died, Lightning called the ambulance to come pick him up from the shelter because he was violently vomiting and she could not continue caring for and cleaning up after him.

It was far too cold to send him outside, Lightning said, and the Carmacks man told her he had no friends or family to stay with in Whitehorse; 911 was her last resort.

Silverfox had been drinking heavily in the days preceding his ill-fated trip to Whitehorse, the coroner's jury has heard over the past three days of the inquest.

He was not a regular drinker, according to his friends and co-workers, but when he did drink, he would get very sick, sometimes vomiting and shaking for days after a weekend of drinking.

When the ambulance arrived at the shelter, the attendants checked Silverfox's vital signs, all except his temperature, and asked if he wanted to go to the hospital. He said no, according to the paramedics' testimony, and chose the only other option: RCMP cells.

His relatively normal vital signs and his ability to answer questions about who and where he was indicated he was able to make his own decisions, the paramedics said, adding they could not take him to the hospital with out his permission.

During cross-examination of both paramedics, the Silverfox family's lawyer, Susan Roothman, asked if they made assumptions about patients who were reported to be drunk, or if they treated first nations people differently than others.

"I got into the job for a specific reason and I treat every patient the same,” senior medic Andrew McCan responded.

His partner, Jill Smith, testified over the phone, and her voice cracked with emotion as she responded: "I grew up here, and half of my friends are native, so I'm very aware of native culture in the Yukon. ... I've never treated anyone differently because of their race.”

Lightning said she knew the paramedics could not force someone to go to the hospital, and preferred it when the RCMP would respond, because they have that power; no one exercised it in this case, however.

When the police arrived at the Salvation Army, they were told Silverfox did not need to go to the hospital, according to Const. Danny Bulford.

The officers arrested Silverfox for disturbing the peace. This is the typical charge against people who are picked up at the Salvation Army, Bulford explained, because they are disturbing the staff and clients of the shelter.

"That's how the RCMP does business every day in Whitehorse,” Bulford said when Roothman challenged him on the decision to arrest Silverfox, rather than offer him compassionate shelter, which can be done with permission of the watch commander. "... We lodge them until they sober up and prevent them from causing a disturbance.”

No charges were ever laid against Silverfox, which Bulford said was common with people arrested for the sole purpose of getting them off the street until sober.

Roothman also pointed to the fact Silverfox never gave a breath sample. RCMP policy states anyone arrested for intoxication "shall” be given such a test.

Bulford said he thought that was practice, not policy.

This morning, the jury saw a video surveillance tape which confirmed previous testimony that Silverfox was calm and co-operative throughout his dealings with police. Bulford said Silverfox obeyed all the commands police gave him and was never aggressive or confrontational.

The video shows him quietly obeying when the officers ask him to remove his jacket, overshirt and shoes in the detachment.

Silverfox appeared to have defecated in his pants before being brought into cells, which was noted by the arresting officers as well as the cell guard, but no one offered him a clean pair of pants in the 16 hours he was in police custody.

Although Bulford and the guard both said Silverfox seemed fine, another man who was in the same cell that morning, said he was obviously in distress.

"He had it coming out both ends,” Dougie Jack told the jury Friday. "... He was really sick. I knew there was something wrong with him.”

Silverfox was writhing and dry-heaving for the entire time Jack was with him, he said.

As Jack and the friend he had been arrested with were being let out of cells later that morning, "we told (the guard), ‘this guy needs help.' ... He just said ‘get your stuff and get out. We're really busy today.' I remember that clear as day.”

The jury has not yet heard from the guard who released Jack.

Craig McLellan, the guard who was on duty for the first two hours of Silverfox's time in cells, said in a statement to police he watched Silverfox on the surveillance monitor and saw that he was heaving and "couldn't get comfortable.”

"He didn't seem that sick, he just seemed kind of angry,” McLellan said. Because he did not appear in court, neither the lawyers nor the jury could ask him any questions about that morning.

The corner's inquest into Silverfox's death is scheduled to continue until Friday. The two-woman, four-man jury will then be asked to determine how Silverfox died and will be invited to make recommendations on how such a death may be prevented in the future.

Their recommendations are non-binding and they are not supposed to find fault as in a trial.