Current
reports (September 2003)
Release of Report (Oct.
2004) March for justice
Website for the Wright Commission of
inquiry into matters surrounding the death of Neil Stonechild |2004: March
for Justice | 2005: From
Saskatoon to LA police abuse is being resisted
Neil Stonechild
Police chief says drop-offs
happened 'more than once'
CBC 09 Jun 2003
SASKATOON - Saskatoon's police
chief says officers may have been dumping native people outside
the city for years, an admission that comes as new information
emerges about a 13-year-old case.
A CBC News investigation has
uncovered new details about the activities of the police the
night a Cree teenager from Saskatchewan vanished.
Seventeen-year-old Neil Stonechild's
frozen body was found in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon
in November 1990.
Electronic records confirm
that police were looking for Stonechild the night he disappeared,
CBC has learned.
The teen's body was found five
days after a witness says he saw him in the back of a police
cruiser.
Stonechild's case was all but
forgotten for 10 years until the RCMP reopened it after two other
aboriginal men were found frozen outside the city within one
week three years ago.
'We have
to take ownership'
In 2001, two of the city's
police officers were convicted of unlawful confinement after
they dropped off Darrell Night in freezing weather on the city's
outskirts.
For years, the Saskatoon Police
Service has insisted that the conviction marked an isolated case
of such treatment of aboriginals.
Police Chief Russell Sabo concedes
that's not the case. "It happened more than once and we
fully admit that and, in fact, on behalf of the police department
I want to apologize," he said. "It's quite conceivable
there were other times."
"We had indicated that,
as I understand, that we didn't have any other incidents of this
nature," said Sabo. "And I think we have to take ownership
of the things that have transpired."
Computer
records link police to Stonechild
Sources say in Stonechild's
case, electronic records confirm police were looking for him
that night in 1990 because of a noise complaint.
He and a friend, 16-year-old
Jason Roy, were out earlier that night, looking for Stonechild's
old girlfriend, ringing apartment buzzers at her building.
They woke people up and someone
called the police.
The two were separated, but
about 15 minutes later, Roy says a police car pulled out of an
alley with Stonechild, handcuffed and bleeding, sitting in the
back seat.
"Neil looked very, very
scared. He was screaming at me and he wanted me to help him,"
says Roy.
Roy says he was scared and
gave police a false name. The police called the name in on their
radio, Roy says, and he was released.
Another teenager, Bruce Genaille,
says police also stopped him that night in the same alley. He
says they kept insisting he was Neil Stonechild.
Sources say the computer checks
police made that night still exist and confirm that police stopped
Roy and Genaille.
Officers
questioned by RCMP
Roy told police twice what
he saw that night, once right after Stonechild was found dead,
and again months later when he asked to speak to a homicide detective.
Roy says police weren't all
that interested.
"They just made a couple
of notes, and they said they would get back to me. Nobody ever
got back to me on it," he says.
The original case files were
destroyed prematurely during renovations at the police headquarters.
After the freezing death of
two aboriginal men outside of Saskatoon within one week in 2000,
the province brought in the RCMP to investigate.
The RCMP interrogated two Saskatoon
police officers about a dozen times, but prosecutors decided
there was not enough evidence to lay charges.
A public inquiry will look
into the teen's death this fall. Both police officers questioned
by the RCMP in the case, Const. Brad Senger and Const. Larry
Hartwig, have official standing with the inquiry.
Their lawyers say it will show
their clients did nothing wrong.
Written by CBC News Online
staff
Who was Neil Stonechild? | Frozen
Ghosts article
Saskatoon police trying to move
beyond the past: chief
Shannon Boklaschuk, Saskatchewan
News Network, June 03, 2003
SASKATOON -- The Saskatoon
Police Service has operated under a "cloud of suspicion"
for several years, which has severely impacted the morale of
its members, Chief Russell Sabo told the aboriginal justice reform
commission Monday.
However, the service wants
to move beyond the past, and is dedicated to working with all
citizens, he said.
"Slightly more than three
years ago, the community and our service personnel were shocked
and deeply distressed by the news that two of our members, constables
(Dan) Hatchen and (Ken) Munson, had failed to live up to their
oath of office," Sabo said in his speech at the Indian and
Metis Friendship Centre.
"I can assure you our
department and the community of Saskatoon have paid a heavy penalty
as a result of their actions. For the past three years, our members
have been under a cloud of suspicion and this has severely impacted
the morale of our dedicated men and women who have continually
tried to get beyond this adversity.
"It is our deepest hope
that we will all learn from the mistakes of the past, and will
began to focus on making things better for the future,"
he said.
The Saskatoon issue of so-called
"starlight tours" first became public in 2000, after
Darrell Night complained he was ejected from a police cruiser
on the outskirts of the city on Jan. 28, 2000, when the temperature
had dipped to a frigid -22 C. Soon after, the bodies of two other
aboriginal men who had frozen to death were discovered in the
same area.
Night's complaint sparked the
creation of an RCMP task force and led to unlawful confinement
convictions against two Saskatoon police officers who later lost
their jobs. Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson began serving eight-month
jail sentences earlier this year.
In February, the province also
announced a public inquiry in the 1990 freezing death of 17-year-old
Neil Stonechild, whose body was found on the edge of Saskatoon.
That inquiry will be held this fall.
Sabo said the police service
has "great expectations" that the commission's deliberations
will act as a catalyst for much-needed change.
"I think many people would
say that the creation of this commission to introduce change
into the justice system and potentially other related systems
is long overdue," he said.
The five-member, $2.5-million
justice commission was set up in late 2001 to address concerns
about the high number of aboriginal people involved with the
justice system, and the way they are treated.
Throughout Monday's presentation,
Sabo and other police officers continually highlighted some of
the police service's successes, such as its aboriginal liaison
program.
The police officers also told
the commission about the Peacekeepers program, which was created
in 1996 to address a lack of follow-up services for youth, and
to provide officers with a better understanding of young First
Nations people, their issues and cultural solutions to crime.
Peacekeepers activities have included day trips to Prince Albert,
where youth, adults and police collect firewood to bring back
to Saskatoon for elders to use in sweat lodge ceremonies.
But during a question and answer
period, commission members pointed out that despite some of the
changes that have taken place within the police service, there
are still some outstanding concerns.
Commission chair Willie Littlechild
wondered why there were no comments about racism in the police
service's presentation.
"Maybe it's just not a
word we want to use anymore. The fact of the matter is it still
continues," said Littlechild, adding that the Saskatoon
Police Service has worn "a black eye."
"We can't sit here and
underline good things that came after the fact. We should've
done this years ago," said commission member Joe Quewezance,
adding that admitting to "factors of wrongdoing" is
a way of beginning the healing process. "Had things gone
so good, I don't think we'd be sitting here today."
Of the Saskatoon Police Service's
approximately 400 sworn members, only about 32 or 33 are aboriginal.
Sabo said the service has not participated in a healing circle
with members of the First Nations community since he's become
chief, but pointed out that the organization is actively trying
to recruit more members from specific groups, including the aboriginal
community.
"If the interpretation
that the board had was that we're promoting racism, that's not
what we're doing. We are actually trying to promote unity, trying
to draw us together and highlight those things where we are the
same as opposed to those things where we are different,"
Sabo said.
Sabo said while the service
still hasn't overcome the negativity brought about by the actions
of Hatchen and Munson, he hopes the Stonechild inquiry "will
answer some of those questions.
CanWest News Service © Copyright
2003 The Leader-Post (Regina)
News Release
- Legislative Building - Regina,
Canada S4S 0B3 - (306) 787-6281
- February 20, 2003
- Justice - 092
INQUIRY CALLED
INTO DEATH OF NEIL STONECHILD
Justice Minister Eric Cline,
Q.C., today announced the appointment of the Honourable Mr. Justice
David Wright of the Court of Queen's Bench to conduct an inquiry
into the death of Neil Stonechild.
"The head office of the
Public Prosecutions Division reviewed the RCMP investigation
into the death of Neil Stonechild and determined that there is
not sufficient evidence to lay charges," Cline said. "There
is, however, evidence that Neil Stonechild had contact with members
of the Saskatoon Police Service on the day he was last seen alive."
The appointment was made by
Order-in-Council, which also outlines the terms of reference
for the inquiry. The inquiry will have the responsibility to
inquire into any and all aspects of the circumstances that resulted
in the death of Neil Stonechild, and the conduct of the investigation
into the death of Neil Stonechild.
Joel Hesje, of Saskatoon, has
been designated by the Inquiry Commissioner as Commission Counsel.
Hesje indicated that over the next few weeks the Commission will
establish the infrastructure and processes required to complete
the inquiry.
The Commission will deliver
its final report and recommendations to the Minister of Justice.
-30- For More Information,
Contact:
Debi McEwen Justice Regina
Phone: 787-6043 Email: dmcewen@justice.gov.sk.ca
Stonechild's mother among
parties to get standing at inquiry City force, union, officers,
FSIN also receive full standing
Shannon
Boklaschuk, The StarPhoenix, May 14, 2003
The request of two Saskatoon
police constables for standing and financial support during the
upcoming inquiry into the freezing death of Neil Stonechild was
granted Tuesday by the inquiry's commissioner.
Justice David Wright ruled
that Const. Larry Hartwig, 43, a 17-year member of the Saskatoon
Police Service, and Const. Bradley Raymond Senger, 39, a 14-year
member, should have "full standing."
"Const. Hartwig is vitally
interested in this matter, having been considered at one juncture
a suspect in the earlier investigation of Mr. Stonechild's death,"
Wright wrote in his ruling.
"The same comments apply
to Const. Senger."
In addition, Stonechild's mother
Stella Bignell, the Saskatoon Police Service, the Saskatoon City
Police Association and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian
Nations (FSIN) were also granted full standing.
The Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, meanwhile, "will have standing limited to the date
it was appointed to investigate the Stonechild matter,"
Wright decided.
Bignell, who lives at the Cross
Lake First Nation near Thompson, Man., is expected to be a witness
at the inquiry. The fees and disbursements of her legal counsel,
Saskatoon lawyer Don Worme, will be provided at no cost to her.
Wright fixed Worme's hourly rate at $192.
"I expect Ms. Bignell
will be a witness at the inquiry and, certainly, I anticipate
she will be present throughout the inquiry. She does not have
any resources to retain and instruct counsel. She lives in northern
Manitoba and must travel by public transportation for some distance,"
Wright wrote in his ruling.
"Ms. Bignell will be allowed
her expenses for travel, accommodation and meals for the days
she chooses to attend the inquiry.
"Ms. Bignell asked that
travel expenses of her daughters in Manitoba be paid. I am not
disposed to grant such a request, as she has a son living in
Saskatoon," he wrote.
Both Hartwig and Senger will
also be entitled to funding for one counsel each, with lawyers'
fees fixed at an hourly rate of $192. The FSIN will also be entitled
to such funding, but funding was denied to the Saskatoon Police
Service.
"It is true the police
service did not initiate the inquiry and that the inquiry may
have some implications for the province overall," Wright
wrote.
"The service is acutely
interested in this matter, as two of its members feature prominently
in it. Be that as it may, the legal costs of the service will
not be significant, save for the fact that they fall on the taxpayers
of the city generally. That is so because the service engaged
a city solicitor to act for it."
Funding was also denied for
the Saskatoon City Police Association, while the RCMP did not
ask for it.
Stonechild, 17, froze to death
in a field in the city's north industrial area in late November
1990. After a three-month investigation, city police concluded
he walked to the Saskatoon Correctional Centre when the cold
overtook him.
His family suspected foul play,
and a close friend has said he last saw Stonechild bleeding and
cursing in the back of a Saskatoon police cruiser shouting "They're
gonna kill me."
His remains were exhumed in
2001 by an RCMP task force examining the deaths of several aboriginal
men. No charges were laid.
The task force was established
after an aboriginal man, Darrell Night, complained police drove
him to the outskirts of the city and left him there in the middle
of a January night.
The allegation sparked a firestorm
of controversy because two other aboriginal men, Rodney Naistus
and Lawrence Wegner, were found frozen to death in the same area
in the same time frame.
© Copyright 2003 The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Police officers want
to testify at Stonechild inquiry
CBC Apr 30 2003
SASKATOON -Two Saskatoon police
officers are expected to ask to be part of the public inquiry
into the suspicious death of Neil Stonechild.
The Cree teenager was found
dead on the outskirts of Saskatoon almost 13 years ago.
Stonechild's frozen body was
found in a field in an industrial area of Saskatoon, on a cold
day in November, 1990. He was lightly dressed and missing one
of his shoes. The official cause of death was hypothermia.
Police ruled it an accident
and the case was closed.
Three years ago, the RCMP investigated
two Saskatoon police officers in connection with Stonechild's
death.
Earlier this year, the province
set up an inquiry into this case, saying there were questions
about whether police were involved.
On Wednesday, the commissioner
of the inquiry, Justice David Wright, will hear submissions from
people who want official standing and money to help pay their
legal bills.
Constables Bradley Senger and
Larry Hartwig are among the seven applicants.
The lawyer representing the
commission, Joel Hesje, explained how the standing will be granted.
"One of the criteria the
commissioner will consider is what interest does the group represent,"
said Hesje, "and to what extent is that person or group
impacted by the inquiry."
Neil Stonechild's mother, Stella
Bignell, the Saskatoon police department, the RCMP and the Federation
of Saskatchewan Indian Nations have also applied for standing.
The inquiry is not intended
to determine criminal or civil responsibility. Instead, it will
look into the way Neil Stonechild's death was investigated in
1990.
The inquiry is set to begin
in September.
Justice probes come too
late
The StarPhoenix Editorial, February 21, 2003
In all likelihood, the coming
inquiry into the death of young Neil Stonechild will raise more
questions than it answers.
Still, it is high time the
family, police members and the public have an opportunity to
look into those cold November hours in 1990 that made up the
final segment of this 17-year-old's life.
From the beginning, the case
made little sense. Shortly after his body was found in a field
north of Saskatoon, police concluded Stonechild died while trying
to walk across the city to turn himself in at the correctional
centre. He attempted this, they said, in the wee hours of a Saturday
morning, while drunk, in minus 28 weather, wearing sneakers,
a jean jacket and a lumberjack coat.
That he was a young offender
who had escaped from a group home -- and, therefore, not a regular
at the correctional centre -- should have been enough to raise
doubts about this conclusion. That the last person to have seen
him alive said he was in the back seat of a police car at that
point should have assured that the case was given extra attention.
Instead, 13 years have gone
by and the public and the family are still waiting for answers.
This is a wait that could have gone on forever had Darrell Night
not survived an attempt to leave him, drunk and ill-equipped
for a winter stroll, near the Queen Elizabeth II Power Station
three years ago.
Night's story, which has already
resulted in the conviction of two city police officers, kicked
off suspicion about other deaths, including that of Stonechild.
Suspicion -- but never any charges.
Although the RCMP looked into
the cases of freezing victims such as Stonechild, Rodney Naistus
and Lawrence Wegner, it found insufficient evidence to lay charges
in any of them. Few people have been satisfied by this.
While we should be grateful
that Justice Minister Eric Cline has decided to launch the Stonechild
inquiry, the delay in reaching this stage did no one any favours.
Saskatoon Police Chief Russell
Sabo expressed concern Thursday about the impact this inquest
could have on morale in his force, but the eternal wait for closure
on this case has been hard on everyone -- including the police.
There can be little question
that Saskatoon's police service and Saskatchewan justice have
gone through a hard few decades, beginning with the botched David
Milgaard conviction for the 1969 rape and murder of Saskatoon
nursing assistant Gail Miller, ranging up to the Martensville
investigation into a fictional gang of child molesters, through
to the batch of frozen Native men who were being found on the
outskirts of the city and the accompanying stories of "starlight
cruises," where inebriated and rowdy individuals were driven
out of town to sober up.
Yet answers are hard to come
by. Milgaard spent 23 years in prison for a murder he clearly
didn't commit and, it appears, he could wait just as long for
an inquiry that will explain why Saskatoon police were so determined
to put him behind bars. Had police not looked the other way when
faced with evidence, they might have kept Larry Fisher off the
street and away from the victims he so brutally assaulted between
the time of Miller's death and his ultimate conviction for it
nearly 30 years later.
The promised Milgaard inquiry
has never taken place, just as no inquiry has been held into
the Martensville debacle. While it is true there is a danger
of perverting justice when an inquiry is held in the midst of
civil or criminal investigations and court cases, the very long
time it is taking to clear the air on these incidents leaves
us with a sense of doubt, suspicion and distrust.
There's an old adage that justice
delayed is justice denied. The fog that lingers over all these
cases while the system's wheels grind slowly does more to damage
the integrity of the justice system than anything that could
come from the inquiries.
Until we see clearly how these
travesties were allowed to take place, and are assured that a
process exists to ensure they can't be repeated, the best in
the justice system will be forever tarnished by the worst.
© Copyright 2003 The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
Inquiry to be held into
Native teen's death
Shannon Boklaschuk , The
StarPhoenix, February 20, 2003
Newly appointed Justice Minister
Eric Cline is expected to announce today that the government
has struck a public inquiry into Neil Stonechild's death.
Stonechild, an aboriginal teen,
was found frozen to death in a field outside Saskatoon more than
a decade ago.
CBC news reported Wednesday
that the Saskatchewan government will launch the inquiry and
that a Court of Queen's Bench judge has also been appointed to
look into the case.
Deb McEwen, a spokesperson
from the Department of Justice, would neither confirm nor deny
the report when contacted late Wednesday afternoon, but said
Cline would be making an announcement at 10 a.m. today.
"He will be making a statement
about the Neil Stonechild matter," McEwen said.
Stonechild's death resurfaced
in February 2000, when The StarPhoenix published a story outlining
details of Stonechild's last day alive.
Although ruled accidental by
police at the time, Stonechild's family always believed that
the youth died of foul play. Fueling their concern was a report
by one of their son's friends, who said he last saw 17-year-old
Stonechild in police custody.
Stonechild's body was found
in a field in the city's north industrial area on Nov. 29, 1990,
near the 800 block of 57th Street. An autopsy confirmed he had
died of hypothermia.
In 2000, RCMP assembled the
largest task force in the province's history to investigate the
freezing deaths of two Native men, and an accusation that two
Saskatoon police officers abandoned another man on the city's
outskirts in frigid weather.
The task force report resulted
in charges against two veteran police officers, Dan Hatchen and
Ken Munson, in connection with the case of Darrell Night. Night
came forward and reported he had been abandoned by two police
officers on the outskirts of Saskatoon in freezing temperatures.
The officers were both convicted
of unlawful confinement in 2001, and were fired the same day.
No charges have been laid in
relation to Stonechild's death. © Copyright 2003 The
StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
- Coroner exhumes body
- RCMP task force probing
deaths of Native men orders autopsy
By Dan Zakreski,
Senior Reporter Saskatchewan News Network
The provincial
coroner is ordering the body of Neil Christopher Stonechild be
exhumed so a second autopsy may be performed a decade after the
young man died under suspicious circumstances.
The body, buried
at Woodlawn Cemetery in Saskatoon, will be disinterred within
the next month and then transported to Edmonton under RCMP escort.
Alberta's chief medical examiner Graeme Dowling will do the autopsy.
Saskatchewan
chief coroner John Nyssen made the order at the request of the
RCMP task force investigating the deaths last year of two Native
men who froze to death outside of Saskatoon in January 2000.
The task force
began examining the circumstances of Stonechild's Nov. 23, 1990
death at the request of friends and family.
Family suspected
foul play in the 17-year-old's death from the start. The last
person who saw him alive said Stonechild was detained in a Saskatoon
city police cruiser, screaming "They're gonna kill me."
Police at the
time concluded Stonechild died while trying to walk across the
city to turn himself in at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.
He attempted this, they said, in the early hours of a Saturday
morning, drunk, in -28 C weather wearing sneakers, a jean jacket
and a lumberjack coat.
At the time,
he was supposed to be in a group home for young offenders. He
had walked away earlier in the week and there was a warrant for
his arrest.
Police disputed
the witness's account of Stonechild struggling and screaming
in the back of the cruiser. Police Chief Dave Scott, then a sergeant,
insisted the case was investigated thoroughly but that no evidence
of foul play was found in the youth's death.
The task force
is not saying why they're taking the highly unusual step of exhuming
the body for a second autopsy.
"We have
available to us numerous ways of doing things and we just don't
discuss that with the public on any investigation," said
RCMP Sgt. Rick Wychreschuk.
Nyssen, chief
coroner for the past six years, said this is the first time in
at least two decades he's aware of the chief coroner requesting
such an action. The task force approached him three weeks ago
with the request to approve the exhumation.
"Exactly
what they're after, I don't know. I don't know if there's something
specific they're looking for," he said in an interview Tuesday.
"I'm not
going to stand in the way of the investigation in any way."
Nyssen said
he asked that Dowling, chief medical examiner for Alberta, do
the autopsy. Dowling is also an adjunct professor of anthropology
at the University of Alberta.
"I thought
it best be done out of province because the first autopsy was
done in province," Nyssen said. "And Saskatchewan does
not have a qualified, trained forensic pathologist."
Nyssen will
co-ordinate the exhumation and examination of the body. He said
doing an autopsy a decade later presents special challenges.
The embalming process, for instance, changes the skin coloration
and complicates interpretation of possible injuries. The full
extent of decomposition is also not known.
"But the
body should be well preserved and pretty well intact, I imagine.
It's in an environment, not just the dirt," he said.
A number of
steps must be satisfied before the exhumation, he said, including
notifying the family 48 hours in advance and contacting the manager
of the cemetery.
Darrell
Night | Hatchen
and Munson | Bigsky
| McMillan | Native
injustice | Frozen
Ghosts | Saskatoon
police stories | Superintendent
Brian dueck | Vernon
Crowe | Lawrence Wegner
|
Immediately
following the McMillan shooting, there was an outcry of sympathy
for Cyr, the police dog. The Saskatoon police have posted a page
in his remembrance. (This has since been taken down). An anonymous
donor provided bullet proof vested for the dog and a fund to
keep the dogs vested up in future.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
