Members of James Smith Cree Nation expressed feelings of relief and closure Thursday evening as a provincial inquest into Saskatchewan’s worst mass killer closed.
“If you want to heal, you have to learn to forgive, and if you can’t forgive, you will never heal,” said Eddie Head, James Smith Cree Nation justice director and uncle of murderer Myles Sanderson.
RCMP and Saskatoon police were given four recommendations to improve operations after a jury analyzed the events leading up to Sanderson’s capture and eventual arrest on Sept. 7, 2022.
Sanderson went on a stabbing rampage in his home community of James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon three days earlier, killing 11 people and attacking 17 others.
After watching videos of the pursuit and arrest, jurors suggested RCMP implement additional training for enhanced takedown and extraction techniques during arrest and require officers to partake in enhanced driver training, including pit manoeuvers.
The jury saw dashcam footage of Sanderson racing south through the northbound lanes of Highway 11 on the day of his arrest, reaching speeds of 167 km/h, narrowly missing oncoming traffic.
Staying hot on Sanderson’s tail, RCMP Cst. Heidi Marshall pitted Sanderson’s stole Chevrolet Avalanche off the highway, leading to an arrest in the ditch near Rosthern, Sask.
She said she had no training on the driving technique.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said the RCMP will review the recommendations provided to them by the jury, including the training of the pit manoeuver.
“We have to remember that this incident was an incredibly high-risk incident outside of what we would see and what we would refer to as day-to-day policing.”
Blackmore noted that officers, including Marshall, were impacted traumatically from the events of that day.
“You saw the emotion from my members that testified,” Blackmore said. “This has had a significant impact on them as well.”
Head and his family invited Const. Marshall to their homes in James Smith Cree Nation to share in healing.
“It’s one in a million what she has done,” Head said. “We hugged her and told her that we don’t have any grudges.”
Head said watching the videos of Sanderson’s arrest answered lingering questions and brings closure to band and family members.
“There were a lot of rumours that the RCMP mistreated Myles, but obviously, we saw in the report that he wasn’t mistreated,” Head said. “They tried to extend his life.”
Sanderson went into cardiac arrest minutes after being handcuffed by police and was rushed to Saskatoon Royal University Hospital, arriving without a heartbeat.
A forensic toxicologist testified Sanderson had overdosed on an extreme amount of cocaine, 12 times the fatal level.
Agreeing with the opinion of a criminal investigative psychologist who testified during the inquest, jurors decided Sanderson’s overdose was accidental — not an attempted suicide.
Video footage showed RCMP performing CPR on Sanderson until the minute the ambulance arrived and took control of the scene.
“We saw that the RCMP did everything within their power to take Myles Sanderson into custody alive. Once arrested, the RCMP and medical responders used all the tools at their disposal to try to save his life. We commend them for their compassion and bravery,” said James Smith Cree Nation Chief Wally Burns.
First Nation leadership said it wants Correctional Services Canada and the Parole Board of Canada to be held accountable, as Sanderson was given statutory release just months before the massacre.
“Canada needs to take the reform of prisoners seriously and rid the jails of drugs and gangs,” said Peter Chapman Band Chief Robert Head. “We know offenders who enter the prison system are at risk of becoming more criminalized and put at odds with organized gangs. The system is failing our people by not caring to focus on rehabilitation.”
Sanderson had 47 cases filed against him through Saskatchewan courts and was charged with 125 crimes as an adult, including two attempted murders, 18 assaults and three break-and-enters.
Four of the assaults were stabbings with weapons including knives, forks, and broken beer bottles.
First Nation leadership is calling for the Parole Board of Canada to notify First Nations about an offender prior to their release from prison so they can create on-reserve aftercare programs and provide transitional housing.
Chief Burns said he is pushing for a national inquiry to highlight the need for more federal funding of First Nations programs, including self-administered policing.
He said the community is also pushing for more elders to be hired in federal correctional centres, increase programming specific to domestic violence in facilities, and offer more of its own programming regarding addictions, victim services, and childhood trauma.
“The system failed to help Myles Sanderson. We see his mental health, addictions, and the root causes of his anger were not corrected inside the system. I fear this could happen again without mandatory participation in culturally appropriate programming to rehabilitate criminals,” Burns said.
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