The Saskatchewan RCMP released a preliminary timeline of the events surrounding the James Smith Cree Nation stabbings on Thursday, leaving some hoping for change.
“We have to start looking at the trauma and looking at the truth of this and we have to start taking responsibilities, not only just natives,” said Darryl Burns of James Smith Cree Nation.
Burns’ sister Lydia Gloria Burns was one of the victims of the mass casualty homicide that took place on Sept. 4, 2022.
On Thursday, Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore and Supt. Joshua Graham gave a three-hour presentation focusing on the activities of Myles and Damien Sanderson before the morning of Sept. 4, the sequence of attacks and their movement throughout the community.
Myles Sanderson left 11 people dead and 17 injured in his stabbing spree that affected the First Nation, as well as the nearby community of Weldon.
The number of injured was reported as 18 at the time of the crime but was updated in the RCMP briefing Thursday to 17.
It was revealed that Damien Sanderson, Myles’ brother and a previous suspect, was the first victim in the string of killings.
“My sister and Myles had something in common and so did the rest of the victims here,” said Burns, who was involved with the community’s crisis response team at the time of the massacre. “We are all a victim of drugs and addictions. If you go behind the addictions and look at all the trauma we have suffered, we all have that in common.”
Myles Sanderson went to an address during the stabbings where he attacked Gregory Burns, Bonnie Burns and two youths. When he left, Gregory was dead, but Bonnie was still alive.
He left and went on to kill five more people.
In the meantime, Burns’ sister Lydia Gloria Burns arrived to help her friend Bonnie. While she was there, Sanderson returned to Bonnie’s house. He killed them both.
“I want her death to have some sort of teaching to it, a lesson to it, and not only our family, but all of the Indigenous communities across Canada,” said Burns.
“I’m very proud of my sister for what she has done and the way she acted that morning. I know in my heart that she is a hero.”
Police were on a manhunt for Sanderson, which eventually led to his capture on Sept. 7, 2022, in the evening near Rosthern.
Global News confirmed Sanderson was dead a short while later, with police sources saying Sanderson died in police custody after ingesting drugs. RCMP have not confirmed the cause of Sanderson’s death.
Burns said he is beginning to realize just how hard it was for the RCMP to catch Sanderson.
“I realized how much chaos, confusion, terror was happening that morning…. How could anyone know where he was or where he was going to go and what he was going to do?” he said, noting that Sanderson used six different vehicles over the course of the stabbings.
Burns said that generational trauma and struggles with addictions have plagued the community for a long time.
“That negative stuff that we have learned in the residential schools and generations and generations of prejudices, we have taken those behaviours and turned them on each other,” Burns said. “I look at the policing system, the justice system in our country and how it has had a lot of racial prejudices in it and a lot of the injustices are directed at us native people.
“You look at the trickle effect, how did it affect Myles? How did it affect Damien growing up in a society like that?”
He is calling on Indigenous communities to start focusing on their youth, so they might be able to shield children from the issues Sanderson faced.
“We started to treat each other the way our ancestors were treated in residential schools,” said Burns. “We need to start teaching the youth in our communities to be proud of themselves, to start learning that they are strong, resilient people.
“We have to start teaching our people how to be parents again, how to love one another, how to love themselves. For me, that is the greatest loss we have suffered over the generations.”
An inquest by the Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service was launched into the 11 deaths at James Smith Cree Nation and Weldon, as well as a separate inquest into the death of Myles Sanderson, but those results won’t be brought forward until January 2024.
Burns said they need to prepare for the inquest results to shake the community once again.
“The thing I’m afraid of is if the information comes out, and it’s not handled in a good way and we are not prepared for that day, it could divide our community even more.”
He said he already has all of the answers he wants to process.
— with files from Global News’ Brody Langager
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