RCMP Watch

Betty Ann Adam,The StarPhoenix

Four days before Christmas, a Black Lake man found himself stranded in La Ronge, 516 kilometres from home, with no money and no place to stay, after RCMP refused to return him to his community, where they had arrested him two days earlier.

James Cook, 38, said he didn’t have $110 for a hotel room, so he wandered the streets of the northern town, occasionally taking refuge in a tavern from the -24 C weather. It was 4 a.m., after all the businesses had locked their doors for the night, before Cook was rescued from the cold by friends who happened to be driving through on their way to Prince Albert.

Cook’s right to security of the person was violated, claims his lawyer, Felicia Daunt, who has filed a Charter application with the Court of Queen’s Bench.

“I really do think it’s only a matter of time before somebody freezes to death on the side of the highway trying to get a ride, which is why I brought the Charter application,” Daunt said.

“It’s really common. It comes up about once a week at least here. . . . I’m sure it’s a real problem in Prince Albert, where people get transported from all over the place. I think, ultimately, Saskatchewan Justice is responsible for the administration of criminal law and if people are being stranded on the side of the highway, I think it rests with Saskatchewan Justice.”

A hearing on the Charter application will be held on March 14. The RCMP and Saskatchewan Justice will both have legal representation.

A statement of facts filed with the court earlier this month stated that until recently, the RCMP abided by a 1997 Saskatchewan Justice policy that decreed “police are responsible for getting the person back home.”

The practice was halted in the north last fall after a memo was circulated by Prince Albert Staff Sgt. Jerry Barkhouse, who referred to the cost of the transportation and said the practice was contrary to the RCMP’s air division operating licence. Barkhouse, who is now retired, also said the practice “deprives commercial carriers of business.”

Barkhouse misunderstood the RCMP position, said RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Brian Jones. The RCMP has never had its own policy requiring them to return released people, but is willing to do so when it is “possible and practicable,” Jones said.

He acknowledged it could be many days before the RCMP have room on a flight going to a particular destination and the individual is on his or her own until then.

He suggested social welfare agencies may be responsible for providing necessities for people who have been released by the court far from home.

“All those who have a stake in how the justice system performs need to take a look at that and work together to try to reduce the situations,” Jones said.

Saskatchewan Justice is reviewing its policy and discussions with the RCMP and other agencies are underway “to sort this out,” said spokesperson Candace Congram.

Freddie Throassie, chief of Black Lake Denesuline First Nation, is angry the justice system is putting his people at risk, despite the attention given to aboriginal justice issues through such measures as the 2003 Saskatchewan commission on aboriginal justice reform.

“These people are taken off our reserve and after the judge has dealt with them, they’re out on the street. (There are) young people not knowing anybody, not knowing the way of city life, not realizing who to turn to in -40 temperature. Where are we headed? Didn’t we learn our lesson already when three people froze to death in Saskatoon?” he said.

Jones objects to a suggestion the RCMP refusal to return released people is comparable to two high-profile cases in Saskatoon, in which city police were implicated in abandoning an aboriginal man and a teenager in freezing weather.

Teenager Neil Stonechild was found frozen to death in 1990 in the north industrial area after he was last seen in police custody, a 2004 judicial inquiry found. Constables Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger were fired for their roles in the incident.

In 2001, constables Dan Hatchen and Ken Munson were convicted of forcible confinement, sentenced to eight months in jail and were fired for abandoning Darrell Night on the western outskirts of the city in January 2000. Night survived.

Two other aboriginal men, Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner, were found frozen to death in the same area within days of the Night incident. Inquests failed to discover how the men arrived at the remote location.

“(Cook’s release in La Ronge is) an issue that we’re taking a look at, but it’s not a case of abandonment,” Jones said.

Daunt was aware of the transportation issue at the time of Cook’s Dec. 20 appearance in La Ronge provincial court, so she asked the judge for an order requiring the Crown to pay $282 for the cost of a commercial flight to Stony Rapids and the taxi ride from there to Black Lake. The judge made the order, but the Crown refused to pay.

Instead, the Crown asked the Court of Queen’s Bench to rule that the lower court judge acted outside his jurisdiction by making the order. Daunt then filed Cook’s Charter application.

Queen’s Bench Justice Allisen Rothery agreed the provincial court’s order was outside its jurisdiction and quashed the order for the Crown to pay.

She also ordered the RCMP be notified so they could be represented at the upcoming Charter hearing.

Cook said he walked back and forth on La Ronge Avenue after everything closed for the night because he had no idea where else to go.

When people from his home community near the Northwest Territories border picked him up, Cook went to his sister’s place in Prince Albert. He missed Christmas with his wife and five children and it was more than three weeks before one of the northern commercial airlines had a $75 seat sale and his sister was able to buy him a ticket home.

Throassie is annoyed the band is sometimes left holding the bag financially.

“This is creating a lot of financial stress on the band when we have to pick up the tab in cases like that,” he said. “Calls start coming in every week from these young people out on the street. We sent vehicles on band expense to pick up these young people, and I don’t think it’s right for (the) Saskatchewan government to have some kind of protocols in place to just leave these young people out on the street.

“They should be responsible to take them back to where they pick them up. It’s only right.”