Stonechild inquiry deals blow to police

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The inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild resumed on March 8 and wrapped up on March 19. Mr. Justice David Henry Wright, having heard testimony from more than 60 witnesses over 43 days, is now at work on his report, which is expected to be released this summer.

The inquiry was called to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Stonechild, whose body was found in an industrial area of Saskatoon in November 1990. The original investigation determined the cause of death was probably hypothermia.

In February 2000, the bodies of Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner were found near the Queen Elizabeth Power Station. The first investigation of these deaths also concluded that they had probably died of hypothermia. That same month, Darrell Night came forward and alleged that two Saskatoon officers picked him up, drove him outside the city to a location near the same power station and dropped him off in sub-zero weather to walk back to town.

As a result of that complaint, the province's minister of Justice, at the request of the Saskatoon chief of police, requested that the RCMP undertake an investigation into the circumstances leading to the deaths of Naistus and Wegner.

The investigation was to include a full review of related allegations that members of the Saskatoon Police Service had engaged in the practice of transporting and abandoning individuals at the outskirts of the city.

The RCMP investigation also included the circumstances leading to the deaths of Lloyd Dustyhorn in January 2000, Darcy Dean Ironchild in February 2000, and Neil Stonechild in November 1990.

All of the names mentioned above are of young Native men.

The investigation of the incident reported by Darrell Night resulted in the conviction of two Saskatoon Police Service officers for unlawful confinement. The officers were then fired.

The investigations of the deaths of Dustyhorn, Ironchild and Naistus were concluded and it was determined that, based on the evidence, charges were not warranted. The Justice minister then ordered coroner's inquests into the three deaths. These inquests have been completed.

The investigation of the death of Neil Stonechild was concluded and it was determined that there was not sufficient evidence to lay charges. However, there was evidence that Stonechild had contact with members of the Saskatoon Police Service on the day he was last seen alive.

Stella Bignell, Stonechild's mother, and her family were represented at the inquiry by Cree lawyer Don Worme.

"She wanted answers and unfortunately this didn't provide her with that," the lawyer told Windspeaker after the inquiry was complete. "But I also want to assure you that we were under no misapprehension that this process would be able to provide her with those answers. Our job is obviously not done with this inquiry and we certainly aim to press ahead in seeking those answers that Mrs. Bignell deserves."

During the final two-week session of the inquiry there were several startling revelations and the Saskatoon Police Service suffered a couple of serious blows.

On the first day, Silas Halyk, the lawyer representing the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, produced a document disclosed to him by the police. It revealed that a small group of senior Saskatoon police officers had formed an "issues team" to monitor the RCMP investigation of the city police service.

Halyk waved a heavily censored document in the air and complained about the lack of disclosure.

"It is not satisfactory for the police to be telling us what they think should or should not be released," he told the commissioner.

After some procedural wrangling, during which lawyers for the police argued that parts of the document were related to security at the inquiry and other sections were subject to solicitor-client confidentiality, Justice Wright eventually decided that he would see the original documents and decide what should bereleased.

Deputy Saskatoon police chief Dan Wiks then took the stand and was examined by his lawyer. He spent most of the first day answering questions about manpower shortages and population growth in Saskatoon.

Under cross-examination, Wiks was forced to admit that he had lied to a Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter when he was asked if he knew that the RCMP considered two city police officers as suspects in the Stonechild death. Although he had been informed by the RCMP that constables Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger were considered suspects, he said he didn't know when questioned by the reporter. After making that admission, Wiks was suspended from duty by police Chief Russell Sabo.

Testimony a few days later prompted another police investigation. During its investigation, the RCMP turned up the fact that Constable Senger had once falsified a breathalyzer result.

Senger may face discipline as well.

Much of the attention of the latter days of the inquiry was focused on the evening of Nov. 24, 1990, the night Stonechild was last seen alive. Wright will have to sort through a lot of testimony relating to whether or not the two officers actually found Stonechild after they received a call from their dispatcher that Stonechild was drunk and creating a disturbance. Their notes and testimony say they didn't find the Native youth, but there are gaps in the records that remain from that evening more than 13 years ago, gaps the family says have not adequately been explained.

Wright will also have to decide if he believes the testimony of Jason Roy, a friend of Stonechild's who testified he saw his friend sitting in a police car pleading for help that night. The officers said they never found Stonechild that night and had no contact with him.

The inquiry cannot assess blame or lay charges. The commissioner's report will assist the Justice minister and other authorities in making any necessary changes.

Worme said his client will pursue some civil action aginst the police.

"We will be going through the formal process of filing a complaint against, number one, not only the fact that they did no investigation, essentially, with respect to the death of her son, but more importantly, as Deputy Chief Wiks was ultimately forced to admit, that her consistent and ongoing attempts over the last 13 years, indeed even up to the inquiry, were successfully rebuffed by the Saskatoon Police Service in a very aggressive and, as it turns out, in a very untruthful way," he said.

Some observers were greatly concerned about the "issues team," saying that by investigating the RCMP investigators and strategizing on ways to minimize the damage to the Saskatoon Police Service, the city police were out of line. Worme has a different reason for objecting to the existence of such a team. He said expert witnesses from far outside Saskatchewan were called on behalf of the police to attack evidence brought before the commission.

"The problem that I had with that whole thing, quite frankly, was that it was a display of the resources the police service had on their side and against Mrs. Bignell. It was a display of the amount of manpower that they used. I mean, literally searching across North America to find an expert to counter the RCMP investigation," the lawyer said. "Let me put it this way. I'm a taxpaying citizen in that city. My taxes go towards supporting the police services and those same monies are being used against my client, which I found to be absolutely reprehensible."

Worme was left with no doubt that there is an old guard within the police service that seeks to cover up problems rather than deal with them.

"There's definitely a problem there. It's exemplified by the attitude of the police association and their lawyers. A lawyer takes his instructions from his client and conducts the case in a fashion that is appropriate. You will recall that on almost the final day of the inquiry, the police association lawyer sougt to bring forward three more witnesses to basically throw more sand in the air. The judge totally reprimanded him and said never in all his years had he seen an experienced lawyer such as Mr. [Drew] Plaxton attempt to bring in what essentially was triple hearsay," he said.

"So that in my view is an exemplification of the desperation that they were obviously feeling and experiencing. The 'old boys' club' must certainly feel the power slipping. But I don't think we can relax in any way because these organizations are political organizations and they do survive and they will continue to survive and they have tremendous resources on their side. They displayed those resources during the course of the inquiry."

Many observers on March 8 wondered why Wiks spent so much time talking about how the workload of his department has grown faster than the resources it receives.

"I think it's part of the overall design to obfuscate. In fact, the intention simply was to avoid talking about Neil Stonechild at all costs," Worme said. "Amazingly enough, it seems to me that more than half of the inquiry was spent talking about labor management issues and budgets of the Saskatoon police instead of the death of Neil Stonechild."

He was asked what he saw as the most startling revelation to come out of the inquiry.

"I think it has to be the absolutely astonishing revelations of police legal cheating. That is taking short-cuts, ignoring policy, ignoring law, doing things in a way that pleases them irrespective of what their duty is," he replied.

Neil Stonechild's older sister Erica Stonechild never missed a moment of the inquiry. She has been told, and believes, that police in the city and in other western Canadian cities have treated her people to what have become known as "starlight cruises" for a long, long time.

"Twenty or 30 years ago there was no need to cover this kind of thing up because nobody was saying anything," she said.

She repeated a Cree word that