Since at least 1976, police have picked up Indigenous men, women, and boys, then left them miles outside the city on sub-zero winter nights, leading to what’s known as the Saskatoon freezing deaths.
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceIn 1990 , Construction workers plant the physical structure of teenager Neil Stonechild freeze in a field outside of Saskatoon , Saskatchewan .
For decades , the Saskatoon Police Service engaged in a practice known as “ starlight tour of duty . ” After picking up autochthonal masses on charges ranging from inebriation to vagrancy , officers would drive them outside the city terminus ad quem and leave them there , often in sub - freezing temperatures .
And while the practice was well - known within Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan , it win widespread notoriety after the Saskatoon freeze death in 2000 when the body of two men were notice near a power plant life in January and February . A third man reported that he ’d barely survived being left by police by the same power plant .
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceIn 1990, Construction workers found the body of teenager Neil Stonechild frozen in a field outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
What ’s more , those death and the abduction renewed interest in the pillow slip of a 17 - year - old male child appoint Neil Stonechild , who was found dead under like luck in 1990 . And as of late as 2018 , autochthonic men have continued to claim that Saskatoon constabulary still engage in taking them on deadly starlight duty tour .
The Tragic Death Of Neil Stonechild And The Survival Of Darrell Night
On Nov. 29 , 1990 , the temperature in Saskatoon , Saskatchewan , dip to disconfirming 18 degrees Fahrenheit . That same daylight , construction workers find the fixed consistency of 17 - year - old Neil Stonechild in a field outside of town . Stonechild wore jean and a wakeful jacket . He was miss one shoe .
Family PhotoNeil Stonechild was the first of several Indigenous Canadians to die of exposure after being in Saskatoon police detention .
The last time anyone saw Neil Stonechild , a member of the Saulteaux Nation , he was in the backseat of a police elevator car . One of Neil ’s friends remember the teenager calling , “ Help me , they are going to kill me , ” according toThe Conversation .
Family PhotoNeil Stonechild was the first of several Indigenous Canadians to die of exposure after being in Saskatoon police custody.
How did Neil Stonechild terminate up face down in a study ? The autopsy point to hypothermia as the cause of death . According to one law officer , “ the tyke went out , mother drunk , went for a walkway and froze to death . ”
Police closed the investigation into Neil Stonechild ’s expiry in three solar day . But the practice of taking Indigenous hoi polloi on starlight term of enlistment continued . In fact , an investigating found that police force were on purpose targeting Indigenous Americans in what became known as the Saskatoon freezing deaths .
On January 28 , 2000 , police picked up Darrell Night , a Cree humankind , in Saskatoon . Night expected the police to take him to the drunk tank . rather , they took him on a starlight tour and drive three mi outside the city limit .
K. Hogarth/National Film BoardDarrell Night moved away from Saskatoon after surviving his encounter with police.
According toThe Washington Post , one of the officer yelled at Night , “ Get the [ expletive ] out of here , you [ expletive ] Native American . ”
“ I ’ll freeze out here , ” Night outcry back . “ What ’s faulty with you guy ? ”
“ That ’s your [ expletive ] trouble . ”
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceA photograph of Neil Stonechild’s body from the 2003 investigation into his death.
Then police left Night on a riverside in sub - zero temperature . He was tire out a jean jacket over a t - shirt .
K. Hogarth / National Film BoardDarrell Night move by from Saskatoon after surviving his encounter with constabulary .
Darrell Night might have frozen that night . He could have become one more of the Saskatoon freezing death . But Night began walk back toward townsfolk . Miraculously , Night hit a power place before frostbite took over , where a watcher helped him . He ’d walked for two miles through the freezing night .
Trekphiler/Wikimedia CommonsThe Saskatoon Police Service headquarters in 2014.
That same calendar month , the dead body of Lloyd Dustyhorn was found frozen on the edge of Saskatoon . One day before unwrap Dustyhorn ’s body , police hadarrestedhim for public insobriety .
The day after Darrell Night survived , the organic structure of Rodney Naistus look close to where police had dropped off Night . And just day later , the body of a third Indigenous man , Lawrence Kim Wegner , was discovered near the same location .
Night would have been the fifth frozen consistence found in the same stretchiness of prairie outside Saskatoon . And when he spoke out against the law , Night received destruction threats .
Investigating The Saskatoon Freezing Deaths
Although the Saskatoon stop dead demise in early 2000 fetch the trouble into public view for the first time , locals had long known of the practice that police euphemistically touch on to as taking someone on a “ starlight tour of duty . ”
“ That there is a pop term [ for this practice ] is testimony to the fact that it happened more than once,”writesscholar Sherene Razack . “ The praxis of drop - offs is a deadly one when the temperature is minus twenty - eight degrees Celsius and if the long walk back to township is undertaken without proper clothing and place . ”
Royal Canadian Mounted PoliceA exposure of Neil Stonechild ’s body from the 2003 investigation into his expiry .
The Saskatoon freezing deaths reveal the panoptic conflict between law enforcement and autochthonous people . In Saskatchewan , autochthonal hoi polloi comprise five percent of the entire population but over half of the prison universe .
When Darrell Night survived his starlight tour , the province opened an interrogation .
The police officers who entrust Night for numb take they did n’t part a individual natural law . The officers claim that Night ask them to expend him off at the border of Ithiel Town . accord to the officer , Night said , “ Look boys , throw away me off anywhere . Just do n’t take me in and charge me . ”
During their trial , the officers claimed they make up one’s mind to drop off Night in a location where he would ask to walk back to township .
The two officers — Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson — were found guilty of improper parturiency . They served eight months in prison house .
Ending The Saskatoon Police’s ‘Starlight Tours’
“ If it was n’t for Darrell Night , we would still be muddling around , ” Sakej Henderson , who directs the Native Law Centre , toldThe Washington Post .
“ We know the people died suspiciously , but we could never get enough connecting evidence to say why they died . But with Darrell Night , all of a sudden the pattern was there . We could see it readable . Clear enough the province has said we require an inquiry . ”
Trekphiler / Wikimedia CommonsThe Saskatoon Police Service HQ in 2014 .
Saskatoon Police Chief Russell Sabo admits the Saskatoon freezing deaths were make by the department . Sabo also recognize in 2003 that as early as 1976 , the departmentdisciplined an officerfor vacate a woman outside of the urban center .
The starlight go , he order , “ happened more than once , and we to the full admit that and , in fact , on behalf of the police department , I need to excuse . It ’s quite imaginable there were other clock time . I think it ’s significant we take ownership when we do something wrong and correct the behaviour . ”
Despite the law chief ’s admittance , probe into the other death did not find the police responsible for . The panel progress to an “ inconclusive ” ruling on the causal agency of Naistus and Wegner ’s deaths .
Lawrence Wegner ’s mother believe the police lead her son ’s best chance for survival before leaving him out in the cold . “ They took his jacket , ” Mary Wegner said . “ Only they know what they did to him . ”
“ Maybe in their eyes that person is no good , ” Wegner added . “ I would n’t lease anybody take the air on a road when it is inhuman out , minus 28 , biting wind . It ’s cold when it is stale here . ”
While Darrell Night survived , his home continue to struggle with what chance . “ I did n’t believe anybody could be that cold - blooded , ” Night ’s female parent , Rosa Desjarlais , toldMacleans . “ I do n’t bank the cop , period . I would never go to them if I was urgently in need because they would never , never take my discussion for it . ”
None of the officers involved in the Saskatoon freezing deaths were ever shoot down for cause the deaths .
The Saskatoon freeze deaths are part of a enceinte legacy of Indigenous favouritism in Canada . Next , check about the wrongful sentence ofDonald Marshall , Jr.and then read about the history ofresidential school in Canada .
