Clark Whitehouse's death was an accident, a Yukon coroner's inquest concluded Thursday afternoon.

Whitehouse died while in RCMP custody on Sept. 28, 2003 off the Lewes Lake Road near Carcross.

After a high-speed vehicle chase and foot pursuit, Whitehouse was Tasered at least three times by Const. Paul Thalhofer.

But the Tasering had no role in Whitehouse's death. The six-member jury ruled that Whitehouse died of acute cocaine poisoning.

After the foot chase, Thalhofer had observed Whitehouse taking a bite of white powder.

Later, the jury heard that Whitehouse had ingested four times the lethal amount of cocaine.

According to a toxicologist's report, Whitehouse had 41 milligrams of cocaine per litre in his blood.

The jury made no recommendations for the RCMP or medical profession about how to handle such situations in the future.

After jury members had deliberated for more than three hours, the inquest heard that none of the jurors could agree on any recommendations.

For a recommendation to be presented to the inquest, at least five of the six jury members had to agree on it.

Jack Whitehouse, Clark Whitehouse's father, had a few unofficial recommendations for the coroner, legal aid services and the RCMP.

Outside the courthouse Thursday, Jack told reporters that a lawyer should be made available for the family of the deceased.

'As a retired 65-year-old, I can't afford lawyers,' said Jack.

The former corrections officer contacted a number of legal aid services, but was told by all of them that they cannot assist with coroner's inquests.

So instead, Jack found himself representing his family's interests at the inquest.

'I feel it's a rather cruel thing to do to force somebody into that position,' said Jack. 'There are three lawyers there. I'm sitting there alone. I had to go in as an amateur, and not only that, but I'm a very emotionally-charged subject.'

Jack spent months studying the case. Even so, there were some awkward moments in the Yukon Supreme Court room this week when Jack made opinionated statements based on the evidence when he was supposed to be questioning the witnesses.

During one such incident, Jack told Cpl. Brian Edmonds he was worried that an RCMP video re-enactment of the event did not reflect what actually happened.

Thalhofer's lawyer, Edward Horembala, jumped up and told Jack he was not allowed to make such allegations.

Horembala told Jack that if he didn't think the re-enactment matched Thalhofer's testimony, he should have asked Thalhofer about the differences while Thalhofer was on the stand.

Jack apologized, saying he did not have a lawyer.

Horembala told him, lawyer or no lawyer, a person does not make serious allegations about a person until that person is given a chance to respond to them.

Coroner Sharon Hanley assured Jack that the re-enactment was likely made by the RCMP in good faith.

'They would do as much as they can to make a re-enactment as accurate as possible,' said Hanley.

Because of incidents like the one with Horembala, Jack said, other people who have to represent themselves in similar situations could find themselves getting hurt.

Jack was also hoping the RCMP would consider removing the handcuffs before administering CPR as a procedural practice.

According to a St. John Ambulance guide Jack had, a subject should lay flat on his back while CPR is being administered.

Jack said because his son's handcuffs were not removed, there was no flat surface, thus CPR was not effective.

'In this case, it wouldn't have made a difference, but it could make a difference in the future.'

Jack had heard at the inquest that not even CPR could bring back his son after he had consumed such a large amount of cocaine.

RCMP and other emergency workers said they didn't think that being handcuffed behind the back would affect CPR because a large portion of the upper back would be flat on the ground.

'I was expecting the possibility of recommendations,' said Jack about the inquest.

'I was thinking that perhaps something positive of this negative situation would come along that would help somebody in the future... not for me. Not for him. But for somebody else in the future.'

The father hoped the RCMP would do their own internal review of the matter and perhaps solve any problems within their system.

Jack, who was fairly close to his son, described Clark as being very athletic and highly intelligent.

The father said he accepts the jury's ruling as accidental.

His son grew up in Whitehorse but was living in Victoria at the time of this death.