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Nov.
2005: Stonechild family sues | Previous on Neil Stonechild:
The inquiry | Inquiry
website | Saskatoon police
respond to Judge Wright's report | Frozen
Ghosts | Darrell Night |
Use index to Saskatoon police stories at right to find the coverage
from 5 years ago. Be prepared to settle in for an evening if
you want to read it all . . . See also Mayor
Maddin | Leanne
Bellegarde Daniels | Our
August 2003 protests Sermonette: November
12, 2004:
Saskatchewan Justice in chaos: The Stonechild report suggests
it is | Hartwig
and Senger fired
| March
for justice
|
Neil Stonechild:
Wright report released
Six-figure settlement,
apology would avoid suit
Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix,
January 13, 2005
Neil Stonechild's family has
asked the Saskatoon police commission to pay a six-figure settlement
to compensate for the teen's 1990 death and police handling of
it.
The family is also seeking
a written apology as part of a settlement that would avoid a
civil suit.
"We're not really looking
for a pound of flesh here, we're just looking for some vindication
for Mrs. (Stella) Bignell and her family and everybody (can)
get on with their lives," said lawyer Greg Curtis, who along
with Donald Worme represents Stonechild's family.
Bignell, Stonechild's mother,
referred comment to her lawyers.
Stonechild froze to death in
November 1990. His body was found in a north Saskatoon field,
with marks across his nose and wrists. Justice David Wright,
commissioner of a public inquiry into Stonechild's death, found
that constables Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger had Stonechild
in custody the last night he was seen alive.
The commissioner described
the police service's investigation of Stonechild's death as "superficial
at best" in his October report.
The lack of action by police
after StarPhoenix articles in 1991 and 2000 highlighted the suspicious
circumstances of Stonechild's death was also upsetting to the
family.
"Leaving them in that
state of suspended apprehension for that long and treating them
in the fashion they did bordered on, if it didn't cross over,
into outright deceit," Curtis said.
The police service offered
false assurances that it thoroughly investigated Stonechild's
death and destroyed the teen's clothing and belongings despite
his mother's request that police turn them over to her.
Any settlement or court award
would likely take both loss of life and police treatment of the
family into account, Curtis said.
Although the cases aren't entirely
comparable, the family's lawyers have considered the awards worth
tens of millions to wrongfully convicted David Milgaard and Donald
Marshall, as well as the confidential payout by the provincial
Justice Department to Richard Klassen and 11 other targets of
malicious prosecution.
"We certainly researched
these types of cases where compensation is ordered, but frankly,
our proposal is not in that range," Curtis said. "All
we're looking for is some satisfaction for the family."
He declined to specify how
much the family has requested, but confirmed the amount is six
figures.
The written apology would give
the family "something more permanent" than the verbal
apologies Chief Russ Sabo and Justice Minister Frank Quennell
have already offered, Curtis said.
The lawyers formally requested
the settlement in a faxed letter to the city solicitor's office
last month.
"At the moment, the ball's
in their court," Curtis said.
City solicitor Theresa Dust,
acting for the board of police commissioners, said it's waiting
for clarification of whether the family's claim is covered by
liability insurance policies the commission held during the past
14 years. If insurance covers the settlement, city taxpayers
would only be on the hook for paying an insurance policy deductible
of $25,000 or $50,000. The police commission would have no say
in whether the claim is settled or goes to trial, Dust said.
If insurance doesn't cover
it, taxpayers would end up footing the bill for any settlement.
The commission would have input into whether to proceed to court,
Dust said.
The city has a reserve fund
to pay policy deductibles, but not one for uninsured claims,
which are "quite rare," she said.
Mayor Don Atchison, the police
commission chair, said he hopes the claim can be settled without
going to court.
"No one wants any of those
things. We assume the insurer is looking after it."
Hartwig and Senger are appealing
their dismissals from the force, but Curtis said that process
won't affect settlement talks.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Best to restructure policing
Doug Cuthand, The StarPhoenix,
November 15, 2004
What a difference a couple
of weeks makes.
Three weeks ago, the report
from the inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild was released
and we thought we saw some light at the end of the tunnel. In
his findings, Justice David Wright vindicated Jason Roy and Stella
Bignell, while the Saskatoon Police Service faced the damning
indictment that two of its members most likely had Neil Stonechild
in their custody the night he died.
Wright had accepted the aboriginal
testimony over that of police officers. It appeared as if the
truth was about to come out and we could begin to see some healing
for Stonechild's friends and family.
The police commission including
the mayor have endorsed Wright's findings but police officers
have closed ranks and refused to accept any blame in Stonechild's
death. This is a serious turn of events because it indicates
police service members are rejecting the findings of a judicial
inquiry in favour of their own interpretation of events. It's
serious because they are placing themselves above a commission
of inquiry headed by a respected judge.
The Saskatoon Police Service
has serious problems. Residents of the city and aboriginal community
were prepared to move on, but police officers are standing in
the way of progress.
Wright is a respected jurist
who didn't reach his conclusions lightly. He listened to weeks
of testimony, along with submissions from some of the best lawyers
in the province. Police officers were given the chance to present
their case, which they did at every opportunity. Now they consider
themselves above the process and the law, and that is wrong.
When the hearing was under
way, people thought the police service had improved and these
issues were behind it. No more bodies had been found since the
"starlight tours" had become public knowledge, and
it looked as if police had learned a lesson. But their actions
during the inquiry and now indicate otherwise.
When Stonechild's body was
found, one of his shoes was missing and little work apparently
was done to look for it. But a shoe was found in a public place
at the inquiry with an attached note claiming it was Stonechild's
missing shoe. This disgusting act reflected badly on the police
service and Bignell's lawyer Don Worme pointed to it as a sign
of a dysfunctional police force.
Jason Roy testified that he
saw Stonechild in a police car pleading for his life. It was
the last time he would see his friend alive. Roy feared that
he was being watched by city police and sought refuge in a safe
house outside Saskatoon. The RCMP had to protect Roy from the
Saskatoon police -- something you might see in a Third World
country. This speaks volumes about the fear that Roy had about
the police and the danger he faced.
To illustrate how insensitive
the police service has become, it has the gall to ask for new
headquarters building instead of addressing serious problems
that exist inside the current facility.
Saskatoon has reached a serious
point in its history. This could be the start of a new relationship
with the aboriginal community, or it could be the point future
generations will note that everything was lost.
One-third of Saskatoon soon
will be aboriginal. Either we work together to develop a special
place or the "two solitudes" Wright describes will
exist within two hardened shells.
The police service has no choice
but to accept the findings of the Wright report. Police Chief
Russ Sabo did the right thing Friday when he fired the two police
officers named in the report, Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger.
The public deserves a police
force it can trust, not a force that continues to bully residents.
The police are a part of this community.
There have been calls to disband
the police service and start over. This would be costly and disruptive,
but this police force needs to be restructured. In the short
term, the RCMP should be contracted to run the force. Each current
municipal police officer should have to re-apply for his or her
job. This way you separate out the bad blood and retain the good.
And make no mistake about it
-- there are a lot of good officers in the police service. They
just need the opportunity to rise to the top.
Also, a serious attempt should
be taken to implement recommendations of Wright's report. This
includes recruiting more aboriginal police officers. When pressed
in the past, the reaction from the service always was that it
had no First Nations applicants.
With a culture of racism in
the service, that's no wonder. Who would want to work in a climate
of us-against-them when you're one of them?
But it can be done. About a
fifth of the RCMP's Saskatchewan contingent is aboriginal, reflecting
the demography of the province.
The Saskatoon Police Service
and the city administration are facing a serious crisis. If there
is no concrete action taken, then Saskatoon will have lost and
our people will be at the mercy of an undisciplined police service.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Memory
lapses no defence for police officers
Les MacPherson, The StarPhoenix,
October 28, 2004
It was their improbable memory
lapses, among other things, that implicated two Saskatoon police
officers in the death of Neil Stonechild.
The aboriginal teenager died
of exposure on a bitterly cold night in November 1990. A judicial
inquiry into the case found that he was in the custody of constables
Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger shortly before his death. Both
officers are now suspended and are awaiting a disciplinary hearing.
Both have consistently denied that they even saw Stonechild on
the night in question.
Justice David Wright, who headed
the inquiry, simply did not believe them. Rather, he found that
the two officers lied to cover up their involvement with Stonechild.
What helped convince Wright of the officers' dishonesty was their
feigned forgetfulness.
That the two were looking for
Stonechild that night is established by police dispatch records.
Stonechild was drunk and creating a disturbance in a west-side
apartment building. Then-partners Senger and Hartwig were dispatched
to the scene in a squad car. They insist Stonechild was gone
by the time they arrived and that they never found him. They
further claimed to have no recollection of looking for Stonechild
that night.
Wright found this manifestly
unbelievable. A routine call, they might have forgotten, he conceded,
but this was not routine. The youth's frozen body was discovered
just four days after the call. That Hartwig and Senger were looking
for him the night he died would have been critically important
evidence in a suspicious death. The two officers could have helped
reconstruct Stonechild's final hours. But both men insist they
did not make the connection.
Wright didn't buy it. How could
they have forgotten they were looking for someone who soon thereafter
turned up dead?
It's not as if Neil Stonechild
was just another name to the officers. Hartwig knew him from
previous dealings. Hartwig conceded, too, that he'd have known
about Stonechild's body being discovered. It would have been
common knowledge among police. He later learned that at least
one other officer was concerned about the shoddy investigation
into Stonechild's death. Even so, he did not disclose that he'd
been searching for Stonechild around the very time of his disappearance.
Hartwig's forgetfulness does
not square with evidence of an otherwise excellent memory. He
testified to taking pride in his memory. He was able to recall
the specific words he'd used in an interview with RCMP three
years earlier. It was only when he came to the Stonechild case
that his memory seemed to fail him.
Another officer who'd dealt
with Stonechild months earlier on an unrelated matter remembered
all about it, Wright observed.
"If Cst. Hartwig had nothing
to hide I would have expected no less of him."
Senger's simultaneous memory
lapses were no less suspect. Like Hartwig, he made no apparent
effort to assist officers investigating the Stonechild death.
When almost anyone else would have announced, "Hey, that
kid who died is the same one we were looking for the other night,"
Senger said nothing.
Why would he keep quiet? Why
would he not share this vital information with investigating
officers? Wright could only conclude that Senger was concealing
his involvement with Stonechild.
Senger's credibility was further
undermined by his admitted falsification of evidence in another,
unrelated case. At the time, he was operating the breathalyser
in a drunk driving case. He admitted to recording a false reading
on one of two tests administered to a suspect who was later charged.
Senger told the inquiry that he didn't know if the suspect was
convicted. Had he been called to testify in court, he said he
would have asked that the false record be withdrawn. Even so,
Wright characterized this as a serious breach of duty that "casts
a large shadow" on Senger's integrity.
Wright found that Hartwig and
Senger had enough time to dump Stonechild on the edge of town.
The officers had 27 minutes between the Stonechild dispatch and
their next call. That's more than enough to drive from the west
side to the city's northern outskirts and back.
Then there was the eyewitness,
Jason Roy, who saw his friend Neil taken away, handcuffed and
bleeding, in the back of a police car. Roy's evidence was flawed,
but not fatally so. Wright found him to be not only credible,
but commendable. For 14 years, in fear of his safety, he tried
to find justice for his friend.
Finally, there is the question
of motive. Lawyers for Hartwig and Senger insisted their clients
had no reason to dump Stonechild at the edge of town. Rather,
they'd have taken him to jail. This defence was scuttled by evidence
that other city police officers have dumped prisoners at a remote
location. From all indications, it was done as a convenient way
of dealing with troublemakers.
Now it's police officers who
find themselves in trouble.
les.macpherson@TheSP.com
© The StarPhoenix
(Saskatoon) 2004
Inquiry confirms worst
about police
Randy Burton, The StarPhoenix,
October 27, 2004
Justice David Wright's findings
in the death of Neil Stonechild represent the absolute worst-case
scenario for the Saskatoon Police Service.
If you were to believe the
worst of the police in every circumstance of this sorry incident,
you would not be cynical in your assessment -- you would be correct.
If you were to believe that
the police conducted the shoddiest possible investigation into
the needless death of an aboriginal teenager -- just a 17-year-old
kid, really -- you would be right.
If you were to conclude that
in the aftermath of Stonechild's death the police came dangerously
close to conducting a coverup, you would be right about that,
too.
Finally, if you predicted that
to the very end, the police would put protection of their own
ahead of the rights of the Stonechild family and the public interest,
you are not a malcontent out to get the police. You are merely
prescient.
For not only did Wright conclude
that two city police officers had Stonechild in their cruiser
on the deadly cold night of Nov. 24, 1990, but his analysis of
their duty schedule shows that they had adequate time to drive
him to an empty field in the north end of Saskatoon.
Because public inquiries are
not allowed to lay criminal blame, Wright stops just short of
saying constables Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger dumped Stonechild
in that gravel parking lot. However, there can be no doubt about
his inferences.
The key to understanding what
happened to Stonechild comes down to what happened in the hour
between 11:51 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Hartwig and Senger were sent
to the Snowberry Downs apartment building in west Saskatoon to
answer a complaint from Trent Ewart that a drunken Stonechild
was pounding on his door and creating a disturbance.
Despite the officers' claims
that they never saw Stonechild that night and barely remember
the call some 14 years later, Wright believes otherwise.
He concludes that the officers
picked Stonechild up on the street after 11:51 p.m. that night.
"He was drunk and probably
belligerent and unco-operative. The constables took him into
custody. The cruiser proceeded a short distance down a lane to
Confederation Drive. As the car exited the lane, the police intercepted
Jason Roy. Roy observed Stonechild in the rear of the cruiser.
When asked if he knew the prisoner, he denied that he did. Roy
testified his friend was cursing him and calling for help and
telling Roy to tell the police who he was."
Despite the fact he was excoriated
as an unreliable witness and admits to a rough life riddled with
drug and alcohol abuse, Wright accepted Roy's unshakable conviction
that Stonechild was in that car, and indeed, commended him for
his tenacity.
Wright was particularly critical
of the investigation conducted primarily by former police Sgt.
Keith Jarvis.
It was Jarvis who postulated
that Stonechild may have been walking to the Saskatoon Correctional
Centre, even though he had no evidence of that.
Roy told him he had seen Stonechild
in the car, but the information did not make it into Jarvis'
notes, an action that Wright said "cast a totally different
light on Sgt. Jarvis' actions as investigator. What might have
seemed inexcusable incompetence or neglect now took on a more
serious focus."
Jarvis wrapped up a superficial
investigation without so much as looking at the crime scene or
the autopsy report, prompting Wright to conclude that "Jarvis
was not prepared to pursue the investigation because he was either
aware of police involvement or suspected police involvement."
Eventually, Jarvis admitted
to RCMP investigators that Roy had indeed told him his story,
but then he went on to recant all this at the inquiry, claiming
he had false memory syndrome.
As for the denials of Hartwig
and Senger, Wright found them to be totally without credibility
and that they had deliberately attempted to conceal their involvement.
All in all, a very sorry day
for the police.
Wright's inquiry establishes
a number of things but a few stand out. One is that aboriginal
people have every reason to mistrust the police in this city.
The wonder is that they are as forgiving as they are.
Stonechild's mother, Stella
Bignell, said Tuesday she would still tell her children to try
to regain their faith in the police, "because I have. You
know, I still trust police. I've always said there's good and
bad in everyone and there is good and bad in the police force,
too."
Even Roy says he has faith
that real changes are coming "and that Native people as
a whole cannot be ignored any more."
What the inquiry also shows
is that in spite of the actions taken by new police Chief Russell
Sabo, there is still plenty of reason to be skeptical of how
the force is run. You'll recall Sabo came in as the new broom
with a mandate to change the culture within the police service.
Yet it was on his watch that
the so-called "issues team" formed within the police
service to deal with the inquiry quickly evolved into what Wright
describes as "a partisan forum for planning ways to rebut
the evidence compiled by the RCMP against its members."
Nor does the police union's
response to the report elicit any confidence. In spite of the
inquiry's conclusions, police association president Const. Stan
Goertzen insists that Hartwig and Senger never had Stonechild
in their car and had nothing to do with his death.
Finally, Wright's report shows
that public inquiries actually do work. Justice Minister Frank
Quennell said as much Tuesday, which is probably worth remembering
the next time the government rejects an inquiry into something
it doesn't care to talk about.
This inquiry is probably as
close as we are ever going to get to finding out what really
happened to Neil Stonechild on that night almost 14 years ago.
That it took so long remains
an indictment of a police service that allowed Stonechild's death
to be so easily swept under the carpet.
That those responsible for
it are still at large means that true justice in this case remains
elusive.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Cops
Suspended: No doubt Stonechild in custody of officers, Wright
says
Betty Ann Adam, The
StarPhoenix, October 27, 2004
Two Saskatoon police constables
were suspended from duty on Tuesday after the commissioner of
the Neil Stonechild inquiry found they had the youth in their
custody on the night in 1990 when he was last seen alive.
Stonechild was discovered frozen
to death in the north industrial area with cuts on his nose that
were probably made by handcuffs, Justice David Wright found in
his report, which was released Tuesday.
Wright stopped short of saying
constables Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger ejected the 17-year-old
Stonechild from their car in the area where he died, but Wright
did say the pair had enough time between calls to drive to the
snowy field where Stonechild's frozen body was found four days
later, on Nov. 29, 1990.
The officers' claims they could
not remember looking for Stonechild in the Confederation Park
area after being called to a disturbance that night "are
a deliberate deception designed to conceal (their) involvement,"
Wright wrote.
Wright lambasted now-retired
Sgt. Keith Jarvis, saying he conducted a "superficial and
totally inadequate investigation."
Wright inferred that Jarvis
closed the investigation prematurely because he knew of or suspected
police involvement.
"The deficiencies in the
investigation go beyond incompetence or neglect. They were inexcusable,"
Wright said.
In the years following Stonechild's
death, the Saskatoon Police Service rejected or ignored information
from the Stonechild family and the media that cast doubt on the
conduct of the investigation, Wright found.
Justice Minister Frank Quennell
said he accepts Wright's finding and recommendations.
"The death of a 17-year-old
boy is a tragedy. It deserves our attention. It deserves our
very best efforts," he said.
"We may not always be
able to determine with certainty what happened in the case of
a tragic and premature death, but we must try our best."
Quennell said he has initiated
discussions with Saskatoon police Chief Russell Sabo and the
Saskatoon board of police commissioners to establish a plan to
respond constructively to the report.
There is not enough evidence
to charge the officers, Quennell said.
"The burden of proof that
has to be established in a criminal case is quite different than
what was before this commission. It did not meet that standard,"
Quennell said. The file remains open, he added.
The pair does face disciplinary
action, which could result in their dismissal from the force.
They are suspended with pay.
Sabo also accepted the commissioner's
findings.
"I believe the findings
and recommendation of Justice Wright are a reminder to the police
service of the significance of our responsibility to the people
we serve," Sabo said.
"This community has waited
a long time for a resolution on this. I want to expedite this."
The president of the police
union, however, rejected the findings that Stonechild was in
police custody and that marks on his body were likely caused
by handcuffs.
"I don't believe any member
of the Saskatoon Police Service specifically picked Neil Stonechild
up and caused his death," Goertzen said.
Stonechild's mother, Stella
Bignell, said the report brings "some closure" to the
matter, but there are still many questions that need to be answered.
She said she knows in her heart
that Stonechild didn't walk to the north industrial area where
his body was found.
"Why did he land out there?
Why didn't (police) take him to the holding cells?" Bignell
told reporters Tuesday morning.
She said she appreciates Quennell's
apology to her, but also wants Hartwig and Senger to say they're
sorry.
"He was a good kid, and
I loved my son with all my heart," she said.
Donald Worme, lawyer for Bignell
and the Stonechild family, said he hopes those who played a role
in Stonechild's death will come forward.
"I wish that those that
bear some responsibility . . . can display the same kind of courage
as Mr. Justice Wright, come to us in an honest and forthright
way and talk to us about making reparations and about bringing
some final closure to Mrs. Bignell," Worme said.
Jason Roy, who testified he
witnessed Stonechild in police custody, agreed.
"I hope the people responsible
for my friend's demise have the strength to make things right,"
Roy said. "Come forward, tell the truth, and own up to your
responsibility."
It's the second time Saskatoon
police have been implicated in such a case.
Three years ago, two other
Saskatoon constables were found guilty of dropping another Native
man on the outskirts of the city in freezing weather in January
2000. Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson served jail terms for unlawful
confinement.
Their prisoner, Darrell Night,
survived. His complaint led the RCMP to reopen the Stonechild
case and resulted in the inquiry, which heard evidence of further
instances of police dropoffs.
Wright says a clear picture
of the events of that night emerged after he sifted through thousands
of pages of evidence.
"No one can ever know
with precision, other than Neil Stonechild and Cst. Hartwig and
Cst. Senger, what happened on the night of November 24-25,"
he wrote.
"Whatever other conclusion
one may draw, there is no question that Stonechild was last observed
in the custody of those two officers, and that he was later found
in a vacant field near the Hitachi plant on 57th Street with
injuries and marks that were likely caused by handcuffs,"
Wright said.
Wright found the core of Roy's
testimony "to be credible and corroborated by other evidence.
"He struck me as sincere
and thoughtful and is still deeply affected by the death of his
friend and what happened," Wright wrote.
Wright found that Stonechild
was the subject of two disturbance complaints that night.
The officers had received a
non-recorded complaint about Stonechild causing a disturbance
at the 7-Eleven on Confederation Drive and stopped witness Bruce
Genaille in their search for Stonechild before police dispatch
sent them to a complaint about Stonechild causing a disturbance
at the Snowberry Downs apartments at 33rd Street and Wedge Road.
Genaille said no one was in the car when he was stopped.
The officers later checked
Genaille's name in the police computer. Police lawyers have said
that check proves the police never had Stonechild in custody.
"The timing of the Genaille
CPIC (Canadian Police Information Centre) query was not proof
of anything other than the fact that the query was made,"
Wright found.
The commissioner accepted Roy's
account of being stopped by police while Stonechild was in their
car, handcuffed, with blood on his face and screaming, "They're
gonna kill me."
Wright dismissed inconsistencies
in Roy's testimony as understandable, given his life experience.
Roy said he knew he had told
Jarvis of seeing Stonechild in the police car but probably forgot
that he had written a statement clearing the police until it
was shown to him.
"After considering the
matter at some length, I concluded that there was a germ of truth
to his repeated avowals that he had given different information
to the police about Neil Stonechild and the two constables.
"When called upon to provide
a written statement of the events, he stopped short of implicating
the Saskatoon Police Service. His statement that he 'blacked
out' was a convenient excuse not to reduce to writing the most
important events of that night."
Jarvis left Roy's information
out of his reports and notes, then closed the file after less
than three days' work, Wright found.
"The fact that ultimately
this was not reduced to writing and that there was no other statement
provided, does not, in my respectful view, diminish his account
of what happened," Wright wrote.
He commended Roy for his tenacity
in pursuing the matter over many years.
Roy said Wright's report "met
and exceeded" all of his expectations.
"I've never been so happy,
. . . finally somebody in a place of power actually believed
what happened to my friend," he said.
"Native people as a whole
can't be ignored anymore," he said.
Wright said the police department
leadership acted inappropriately when senior officers involved
in a committee to respond to issues arising from the inquiry
took on the role of trying to refute RCMP evidence against Hartwig
and Senger.
Wright also took issue with
deputy police chief Dan Wiks, who knowingly made untrue statements
in an interview with a StarPhoenix reporter in May 2003.
By that time most members of
the force would have known Hartwig and Senger were suspects in
the RCMP investigation, contrary to Wiks' remarks.
"What message is sent
to the members about the importance of integrity and transparency
in dealing with allegations of police misconduct when such misleading
statements are made to the public by the senior ranking officer?
"The answer is clear and
it is significant that such message was sent on the eve of the
commencement of the inquiry," Wright wrote.
Excerpts From the Wright Report
B6-B7
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
Stonechild report lashes
Saskatoon police
By GRAEME SMITH, Globe
and Mail, Oct 26, 2004
Saskatoon - Saskatoon police
took a native teenager into custody and attempted a cover-up
when the 17-year-old was later discovered frozen with handcuff
marks on his face, an inquiry has found.
The final report of the inquiry
into the death of Neil Stonechild also laments the bitter racial
divide between natives and non-natives in Saskatchewan.
"As I reviewed the evidence
of this inquiry, I was reminded, again and again, of the chasm
that separates aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in this city
and this province," commissioner Justice David Wright wrote.
"Our two communities do not know each other and do not seem
to want to."
One of the most scathing sections
of the commissioner's report describes how police reacted when
they found the native teenager's body lying face-down in a snowy
field near the outskirts of town in November, 1990, with his
hands pulled into his sleeves in a futile attempt to stay warm.
The principal investigator,
then Mortality Sergeant Keith Jarvis, conducted a brief and shoddy
examination of the death in order to conceal his colleagues'
possible wrongdoing, the commissioner wrote.
"The only reasonable inference
that can be drawn is that Jarvis was not prepared to pursue the
investigation because he was either aware of police involvement
or suspected police involvement," Judge Wright said.
It is impossible to know what
exactly happened to Mr. Stonechild on the night he disappeared,
Mr. Wright concluded, but he dismissed nearly all the police
arguments that officers were not involved.
His report finds that somebody
called police to complain about the drunken teenager on the evening
of Nov. 24, 1990, and that Constables Brad Senger and Larry Hartwig
were dispatched to investigate.
The last person who admitted
seeing Mr. Stonechild was his friend Jason Roy, who said he saw
the young man with his face pressed against the window of a police
cruiser.
"He was freaking out,"
Mr. Roy testified. "He was saying, 'Jay, help me. Help me.
These guys are going to kill me.'"
Police lawyers pointed out
errors and contradictions in Mr. Roy's statement, and suggested
that the officers never encountered Mr. Stonechild that evening.
But Judge Wright said he found Mr. Roy "sincere and thoughtful."
Lawyers for the officers also
claimed that police couldn't have taken Mr. Stonechild to the
northern edge of town where he was ultimately discovered, because
they wouldn't have had time to make the drive between their dispatched
calls in Snowberry Downs and O'Regan Crescent on the city's west
side.
Again, the commissioner decided
that the police version wasn't credible.
"I am satisfied that Cst.
Hartwig and Cst. Senger had adequate time between the Snowberry
Downs dispatch and O'Regan Crescent dispatch to transport Stonechild
to the northwest industrial area of Saskatoon," Judge Wright
wrote.
A police expert also testified
that marks on Mr. Stonechild's face were not caused by handcuffs,
contradicting other experts, but Judge Wright said: "I am
not convinced by her opinion."
What is clear, Mr. Wright wrote,
is that the young man was taken into custody by the two officers
and he was later found dead of cold exposure with marks on his
face "likely caused by handcuffs."
Saskatoon police have faced
persistent allegations that they practised so-called "starlight
tours," in which natives who caused trouble were picked
up and taken to the edge of town on cold nights, forcing them
to walk home.
Judge Wright praised the force
for recent attempts to reform itself, but concluded that more
work remains.
"The fundamental problem
the service has to address is the public perception that it does
not take seriously complaints about its members and that it defends
its members against complaints," he wrote.
More broadly, the commissioner
compared relations between natives and non-natives in Saskatchewan
to the alienated anglophone and francophone communities in Hugh
MacLennan's 1945 novel, Two Solitudes.
"The void is emphasized
by the interaction of an essentially non-aboriginal police force
and the aboriginal community," he said.
To bridge that gap, the report
offers eight recommendations, including more cultural training,
more native officers, and an improved complaints process.
The report does not recommend
that Saskatchewan establish a third-party investigative agency
similar to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, whose detectives
examine all deaths and serious injuries involving police. The
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has been hoping the
province would establish a local equivalent of the SIU.
Assembly of First Nations
National Chief Responds to Final Report of Inquiry into the Death
of Neil Stonechild
OTTAWA, Oct. 26 /CNW Telbec/
- Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine responded
today to the report of the Inquiry into the Death of Neil Stonechild,
released today by Saskatchewan's Justice Minister. The report
was prepared by the Honourable Mr. Justice D.H. Wright, Commissioner.
"The recommendations put
forward by Justice Wright should be acted on immediately to ensure
these kinds of incidents never occur again," said the National
Chief. "I applaud the courage and conviction of Neil Stonechild's
mother, Stella Bignell, for her faith in the Creator and faith
in justice that gave her the strength to pursue this case for
14 years. I am urging the Saskatoon City Police, the City of
Saskatoon and the Province of Saskatchewan to demonstrate the
same courage by working immediately to implement the recommendations
in the report."
The report examines events
surrounding the death of Neil Stonechild 14 years ago. His frozen
body was found in an industrial area on the outskirts of Saskatoon
on November 29, 1990. There have been persistent allegations
that the 17 year old was abandoned by police. The inquiry examined
the role, if any, of police officers in the death and the conduct
of the police investigation. The Inquiry was not set-up to assign
blame, but the Commissioner did find that Stonechild was in custody
of the Saskatoon City Police the night he died and that the police
investigation into his death was superficial, inadequate and
was closed "...without answering the many questions that
surrounded the Stonechild death and disappearance."
Many of the recommendations
in the report call for greater participation by Aboriginal people
in the administration and enforcement of justice and for better
awareness and understanding of Aboriginal peoples and issues
by all law enforcement officials. The National Chief stated that
action must be taken immediately to ensure all First Nations
citizens are treaty fairly by the justice system.
"Today's report is the
latest in a long line of studies and inquiries that conclude
First Nations peoples are treated unfairly and that justice,
such as it is, is often denied to our people," stated National
Chief Fontaine. "First Nations must be involved in working
with the police, justice officials and the government to build
bridges between our communities to foster better understanding
and ensure these kinds of incidents never happen again. In this
specific incident, Stella Bignell is entitled to closure after
all these years and we are urging the City and the Province to
work with her towards some kind of resolution."
The Assembly of First Nations
is the national organization representing First Nations citizens
in Canada.
Canada police 'cover-up'
on death
By Ian Gunn , BBC News,
Vancouver, October 27, 2004
Canadian police
were involved in the death of an aboriginal teenager in 1990
but tried to cover up the evidence, an independent inquiry has
found.
The family of Neil Stonechild
claim he froze to death on the outskirts of Saskatoon after he
was abandoned there in freezing conditions by two officers.
The police denied any involvement
but the inquiry concluded the 17-year-old had been in their custody
that night.
Investigators highlighted a
"chasm" between native people and the police.
Saskatoon's police chief has
apologised in the hours since the report was released, admitting
his force let Mr Stonechild's family down.
When the teenager's frozen
body was found near the Saskatchewan town in 1990, a police investigation
concluded his death was a self-inflicted accident.
Racial divisions
It dismissed persistent rumours
that police sometimes drove natives to the edge of the town and
abandoned them there.
The public inquiry said the
original police investigation was both superficial and totally
inadequate.
It concluded there was no doubt
Mr Stonechild had been in police custody on the night he died
- and that members of the Saskatoon force had deliberately tried
to hide evidence of that.
The report also describes a
"chasm" between aboriginal people and the police.
Bitter racial divisions are
fuelled by troubling levels of distrust and misunderstanding
between the two groups, it said.
One of the officers at the
centre of the case has continued to claim his innocence.
The provincial minister has
also admitted it is unlikely the police officers involved in
the case will ever be charged.
He said prosecutors did not
have enough evidence to take action.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3957507.stm
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
