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Rod
Wailing's story | index
to the Saskatoon Police winter 2000 story and follow-ups | Chief Scott approves Zoorkan's actions, more
or less telling Judge Laing to go suck a rope | Saturday
Night August story: Frozen Ghosts
by Brian Hutchinson | Private Eyes
to Shadow Task Force: FSIN hires own team to check up on RCMP
| Darrell Night lawsuit announced
| Lawrence Wegner: Disgraceful cover-up
| Dee Brown | The racism against Darrell Night
continues in 2005
Darrell Night
Saskatoon, Mississippi?
We have our own kind of lynching in this part of the world.
Sep. 10, 2001,
SASKATOON:
Our cops drive drunk poor people to the edge of town during killer
cold weather. As the trial of two cops indicted for doing this
to Darrell Night begins, we will see if the courts are going
to make such practices legal.
Amnesty
International
has already brought Saskatoon to the attention of the world.
Now the world waits for us to do the right thing.
And let us
not forget that Superintendent Brian Dueck was the boss of these cops and that
he remains in that position today. Stay tuned.
Mother sues cops over son's death
By Lori Coolican of The
StarPhoenix, Feb. 21, 2001
The mother of a Saskatoon man
who died of exposure near the Queen Elizabeth Power Station last
winter has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police
force and two unknown officers, claiming her son was taken from
her prematurely because of police misconduct.
Rodney Naistus, 25, was found
frozen to death in front of Shamrock Feeds Ltd. on Schyler Street
last Jan. 29. His mother, Marvina Naistus, filed a statement
of claim against the Saskatoon police and "John and-or Jane
Does, unidentified members of the Saskatoon Police Service"
in Court of Queen's Bench last month.
Naistus' death is under investigation
by an RCMP task force formed last year to look into the complaint
of Darrell Night, another Native man who says two police officers
ejected him from their cruiser near the power station in freezing
temperatures.
Night came forward with his
story shortly after the bodies of Naistus and another man, Lawrence
Wegner, were found in the same vicinity. The task force is also
investigating Wegner's death.
Saskatoon police constables
Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson are awaiting trial on charges of assault
and forcible confinement in connection with Night's complaint.
Night, too, is suing the police force, claiming more than $2
million in damages. Naistus was last seen Jan. 28, 2000 - the
same day Night claims he was dumped.
Marvina Naistus' statement
of claim says her son was walking with an unknown companion near
Maxwell Crescent in Confederation Park, heading for Jax Nightclub,
but somewhere along the way he encountered police officers, who
put him in the back of a marked cruiser "without lawful
reason." They then drove him to the remote location south
of the city and forced him out of the car in freezing temperatures,
"wearing attire that was wholly inadequate for survival
in cold weather," although they must have known that leaving
him there would cause his death, the claim says.
Marvina Naistus relied on her
son for financial support and help with shopping and housework
- and she would have become even more dependent on him in her
old age, it says.
She is asking for damages in
an unspecified amount "for gross misconduct and the mishandling
of the occurrence . . . which is so far from appropriate, normal
conduct by trained police officers or anyone that aggravated
damages are warranted," it reads, "particularly in
light of Mr. Naistus' race and recent disclosure by the Saskatoon
Police Service of systemic racism within the police force."
No statement of defence has
yet been filed on behalf of the police force.
Man sues police for allegedly
being dumped outside city
Canadian Press, Sunday,
January 28, 2001
Saskatoon - An aboriginal man
who has alleged two Saskatoon police officers dumped him on the
outskirts of the city a year ago has filed a civil lawsuit against
them.
Darrell Night claims officers
Ken Munson and Dan Hatchen picked him up last Jan. 29 without
cause or explanation and dropped him off near a power station
in -25 C weather. Mr. Night also alleges the officers uttered
racial epithets.
Both officers have already
been committed to stand trial on criminal charges of assault
and unlawful confinement relating to the same allegations. No
trial date has yet been set.
Mr. Night's allegations have
led to numerous complaints about police treatment of aboriginal
people in Saskatoon. An RCMP task force is looking into several
cases, including two in which men died within hours of being
released from police custody. Another case involves a man who
alleges officers tried to drown him in the South Saskatchewan
River.
City solicitor Theresa Dust
said the board of police commissionaires must decide whether
they will handle the civil suit on behalf of the officers.
In general, the board would
represent officers in defending a suit, and their insurance would
cover any finding against them if it was job-related, she said.
It's unclear whether the insurance would cover a lawsuit if there
was also a criminal conviction.
Private Eyes to Shadow
Task Force: FSIN hires own team to check up on RCMP
by Leslie Perreaux, Saskatoon
StarPhoenix, March 22, 2000
The Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations (FSIN) will hire private investigators to follow
up on an RCMP probe into allegations Saskatoon Police may have
been involved in the freezing deaths of aboriginal men.
"It's independence. The
chiefs are saying we should be doing something ourselves to watch
the investigators. That's where
the idea came from. The options point to looking at our own investigators,"
said FSIN chief Perry Bellegarde.
"Our people can feel good
that there is something else happening and it's not just a case
of big brother investigating little brother but there are outside
persons looking into it."
Bellegarde said the FSIN will
hire a few licenced investigators to check on the RCMP's work.
He said the FSIN is looking at two or three candidates with experience
following up incomplete police work.
Two city police officers are
accused of dropping Darrell Night off south of the city on a
frigid January night, forcing him to find his own way home.
The RCMP has completed its
investigation into the case and the Saskatchewan Department of
Justice is now considering whether to lay criminal charges against
the officers.
The Saskatoon police say the
officers admitted to dumping Night outside town. Their union
says there was a reason fore their action, but the reason has
not been disclosed.
The RCMP is also probing the
freezing deaths of three aboriginal men in isolated areas of
he city. In at least two of the cases witnesses allege they saw
the men in police custody on the nights they disappeared.
Lawrence Joseph, a vice-chief
of the FSIN in charge of justice issues, said his people should
be able to rely on government-funded police forces, but recent
events have shown them unworthy of trust.
"They're paid to do justice
to all people, but they're leaving First Nations people and poor
people out. The purpose of bringing in investigators from the
outside is to investigate the investigators," Joseph said.
"We bring our own people
so they can openly do things based on our instructions to go
and investigate certain things that have been overlooked or that
they can't go into.
"The RCMP have their marching
orders and that's all."
Joseph shrugged when asked
if the month-long probe was moving quickly enough for him.
"I don't think it's expedient.
It feels like a lifetime for 19 investigators to investigate
something that has already been admitted," Joseph said.
  RCMP Sgt. Rick Wychreschuk
declined to comment on the hiring of private investigators, saying
the RCMP doesn't have anything to say about the issue.
Wychreschuk did say the task
force investigating the allegations is being careful to do complete
investigations on each of the cases.
"Our position has always
been to do a complete and thorough job. We don't want to rush
our investigation," he said. "We didn't want to get
into a position where at a later time somebody said we left things
uncovered."
The FSIN repeated its call
Tuesday for a public inquiry into Saskatchewan justice issues,
including the recent allegations against police.
Justice Minister Chris Axworthy
has said such an inquiry may be considered after the current
criminal processes are complete.
Task
force wraps up Night investigation Justice Department to decide
on charges
By Betty Ann Adam Saskatoon
Star Phoenix March 21 2000
An RCMP task force has completed
its investigation into allegations that two Saskatoon police
officers abandoned an aboriginal man, Darrell Night, in a field
on the edge of the city in freezing weather. The task force continues
to investigate the deaths of five other aboriginal men, RCMP
spokesperson Sgt. Rick Wychreschuk said Monday. The task force
has submitted its report on the Night matter to the provincial
Justice Department, which will review it and decide whether charges
will be laid against Const. Dan Hatchen and Const. Ken Munson.
The officers are currently suspended without pay.
Because the investigation looked
into the conduct of police officers, the decision on whether
to lay charges will be made by public prosecutions, rather than
the police, a Justice Department spokesperson said Monday. It
is not known when a decision will be made. Hatchen and Munson
were suspended from the force after Night complained to police
that two officers had left him in a field near the Queen Elizabeth
II power plant on the western outskirts of Saskatoon in the early
morning hours of Jan. 28. Night came forward with the complaint
after the bodies of Rodney Steven Naistus and Lawrence Wegner
were found in the same area. They had gone missing the same weekend
that Night had been left near the power station. The incident
sparked the Justice Department to appoint a special RCMP task
force to investigate. The investigation was also expanded to
include the deaths of two other aboriginal men, Elton Dustyhorn
and D'Arcy Ironchild, who had been in police custody shortly
before their deaths, and another, Neil Stonechild, who died in
1990 under circumstances similar to those of Naistus and Wegner.
RCMP finish probe of
police complaint
The Globe and Mail, Tuesday,
March 21, 2000
Saskatoon -- An RCMP task force
has finished its investigation into a complaint by an aboriginal
man that he was dumped outside Saskatoon in freezing weather
by Saskatoon police officers. Darrel Night said he was taken
taken outside the city Jan. 28, dropped near a power plant and
told to walk home. Two city officers were suspended with pay
in connection with the complaint.
The RCMP report has been given
to the public prosecutions division of Saskatchewan Justice,
which will decide whether any charges should be laid. No details
of the report have been released.
The complaint also triggered
an RCMP investigation into the freezing deaths of five other
aboriginal men. Two of the five were found south of the city
in late January and early February.
Rod Wailing
May 12, 2000: Another person has come forward with
another serious allegation against the Saskatoon Police.
Rod Wailing claims two Saskatoon
city cops took him to the river and tried to drown him on a late
summer afternoon in 1997. He says he did not come forward with
his story before because he didn't think anyone would believe
him. The seriousness with which Darrel Night's allegations have
been taken gave him confidence to come forward with his testimonial.
Wailing appeared on CTV's Canada
a.m. and was interviewed by Valerie Pringle after the local CTV
station carried his story. One year later, we hear rumours that
several dozen more people have taken their experiences to the
FSIN shadow commission. injusticebusters wish the FSIN would
be more forthright and public about the investigation. It would
seem that the police in Saskatchewan have graduated from leaving
Natives to die in the cold or trying to drown them to shooting
them in cold blood.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
