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Rodney Naistus

Retracing Rodney Naistus's footsteps up to the day he died

By Kim McNairn

Rodney Naistus, just released from jail, was celebrating a reunion with his brother and cousin in Confederation Park hours before he was found frozen to death on Jan. 29.

The body of the 25-year-old man from the Onion Lake reserve was discovered near the Queen Elizabeth II Power Station in the city's southwest corner.

His death is being investigated by Saskatoon police and RCMP to see if there is any connection to an incident a week later where two uniformed police officers are alleged to have dumped a man by the same power station.

"I'm always thinking about why, why, why was he out there," said Naistus's mother Marvina Sandirson, in a telephone interview on Wednesday from her home in Lloydminster.

She said Naistus was released from the Saskatoon Correctional Centre's Urban Camp facility on Thursday, Jan. 27 and then met up with his older brother Darrell. The mother did not know why Rodney - who is called Steven by family and friends - was incarcerated.

The brothers were staying at their cousin Charlene Baptist's place on Maxwell Crescent in Confederation Park. They were waiting until Darrell got his Social Services cheque so they could get on a bus back to the reserve, where they planned to return to their grandfather's house.

Baptist said the Naistus brothers and a few other people went to the Red Rock Grill on 22nd Street Friday afternoon for drinks. They met up with a man named Pat and quickly befriended him.

"(Rodney) was just so happy. We were all partying with him. We were just celebrating that he was there with us," said Baptist. The group went back to her home at about 7 p.m.

"We sat there and had a couple more beers. That guy Pat said he wanted to leave. He said he was going to Jax. He invited (Rodney) with him. We were telling (Rodney) to stay. He said, `No no no. I'm going to go find myself a woman,' " said Baptist.

The two men left at about 9:30 p.m. for the Jax Nite Club on Pacific Avenue in downtown Saskatoon. Naistus was wearing two pairs of pants - jeans and sweatpants - a shirt and jacket, remembered Baptist.

She didn't hear from her cousin again.

The partially clothed body of Naistus was found the next day, Saturday, Jan. 29, south of the power station. Police said he died of exposure.

The funeral for Rodney Naistus was held on Feb. 5 in Onion Lake. About 30 friends joined family to remember the man described as quiet and gentle by his grandfather Alphonse Naistus.

"He was wonderful. He was a nice, nice guy. This is the first time I have lost a grandson."

Thinking his grandson may have been the victim of potential police wrongdoing makes him angry, he said.

Sandirson said she only found out Wednesday from a friend of Rodney's that her son's death is part of a larger investigation involving allegations against police officers. She said police later that morning called her son Darrell with similar information.

The two boys were very close, said their mother, having built up a friendship in their younger years by lifting weights and boxing together.

She is pleased the RCMP will investigate the case. She wants independent investigators to find the answers to why her son ended up dead and whether local police officers were involved.

"I'd like to find out what really happened to put my mind at rest."

Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

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