Pas Chief says deaths improperly handled

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Five or six Native deaths in The Pas area were improperly handled by RCMP and local police, The Pas Indian Chief Oscar Lathlin told a Manitoba inquiry.

Lathlin repeated earlier statements that the murder of Helen Betty Osborne, unsolved for more than 15 years, would have been handled differently if she had been non-Native.

RCMP lawyer Hymie Weinstein accused the chief of being prejudiced against non-Natives.

In other testimony, the police officer who finally cracked the Osorne case said after joining the investigation in 1983, he realized that the main suspects and their friends had entered

a pact of silence.

Osorne was abducted off a downtown street by four drunk non-Native youths, who were looking for sex.

In 1987, one of the men was convicted of second-degree murder.

The case finally solved after the constable appealed for tips from the public in the local newspaper.

The inquiry is examining allegations of cover-ups, racism and bungled police investigations.