RCMP too removed from First Nations it serves, Saskatchewan mass stabbing inquiry to hear

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A coroner’s inquest into a mass stabbing that begins Monday in Saskatchewan will hear evidence from First Nation leaders that RCMP officers in the province are too removed from the Indigenous communities they are supposed to be serving and protecting.

On Sept. 4, 2022, Myles Sanderson killed 11 people and injured 18 in a rampage centred in the James Smith Cree Nation. The community is policed by a rural RCMP detachment that covers a wide swath of territory and is located a 40-minute drive away in Melfort.

For many observers, the tragedy underscored how First Nations in Canada are vulnerable, especially as many of them contend with growing rates of violent crime and a lack of any embedded police presence.

The RCMP was “established to protect First Nations,” says Eddie Head, justice director for the James Smith Cree Nation. But he feels this mission is now being forgotten. “They walked away from us,” he said.

There needs to be sweeping reforms to the Canadian criminal-justice system, and an infusion of RCMP ranks in northern Saskatchewan, so that law enforcement is better poised to protect Indigenous communities, he said in an interview.

“The whole point of the inquest is that there have to be some recommendations that come out. In our society right now, we cannot continue the way we’re living,” said Mr. Head, who anticipates he will appear as a witness later this week at the inquest, which is taking place in Melfort.

Tapping into government-financed resources to run public-safety programs remains problematic for many First Nations. And in Saskatchewan, the RCMP leadership says that budget constraints imposed by the province are preventing the Mounties from delivering on enhanced policing models that the federal and provincial governments have contractually promised to First Nations.

“When a First Nation chief says to me, your members are not on mandate, as per the agreements, all I say to them is ‘You’re correct,’” said Rhonda Blackmore, the top Mountie in Saskatchewan, in an interview last month.

Since the massacre, the James Smith Cree Nation has set up its own security patrol force through a short-term federal grant. “The advantage is knowing our people, knowing that if an incident has happened, we will be there within minutes,” said Mr. Head.

He stressed that the community is still discussing how best to install a more permanent police presence. He said that a band council resolution passed in 2005 to negotiate the signing of a community policing accord for enhanced RCMP services never resulted in anything concrete for the community.

Several Mounties will be testifying at the coroner’s inquest. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, senior Saskatchewan RCMP leaders went public with how they had been seeking millions more in policing funding to send scores more Mounties to northern Saskatchewan and its First Nations.

This has not happened.

First Nations policing programs, which are jointly administered by federal and provincial government officials, have never been structured in a way that works well for the Mounties or Indigenous people in Saskatchewan, said Morgan Buckingham, director, Prairie region at the National Police Federation, the union representing RCMP officers.

“I think they have been drifting off course and I don’t know if they have ever been truly on course,” Mr. Buckingham said in an interview.

He stressed that the rollout of such programs is mostly shaped by governments’ budgetary decisions. “It ends up with First Nations being frustrated with the RCMP because we’re not doing the proactive work those positions are supposed to be doing.”

But Noel Busse, a Saskatchewan government spokesman, says RCMP members assigned to First Nations policing positions are operating in line with the province’s contractual responsibilities. It “would not be fair or accurate to say these positions are being used improperly, or for any other purpose than what is stated,” he said.

The September, 2022, massacre was perpetrated by Myles Sanderson, who had been paroled the previous year from a penitentiary sentence that included convictions for violent assaults. During that Labour Day weekend, he was allegedly selling drugs and committing assaults in the James Smith Cree Nation.

At about 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Mr. Sanderson forced his way into a house and began attacking victims with scissors and knives. One of the first people he fatally stabbed was his own brother, Damien. From there, Mr. Sanderson met scant resistance as he broke into houses, slashing people he encountered before disappearing into the dawn.

Two RCMP officers initially responded to 911 calls by racing up the road during a 37-minute drive from the Melfort detachment. More than 500 police officers were then put on the manhunt for Mr. Sanderson, who died as he was apprehended days later. A second coroner’s inquest scheduled for February will look into the circumstances of his death.

Mr. Head, the security chief for James Smith Cree Nation, said he is Myles Sanderson’s uncle. He hopes that the inquest will look at how people like his nephew are further criminalized by the time they spend in penitentiaries, and at how they can be released to their communities without any prior warnings to First Nations leaders.

Canada’s mounted police force was created in 1874 specifically to save Indigenous communities on the plains from violence being launched by smugglers crossing the Canada-U.S. border, Mr. Head said.

That inaugural mission still stands as a promise to protect Indigenous peoples today, he said. But the RCMP has “a lack of officers to honour agreements across Canada,” he said. “There’s not enough officers to go around.”