Manhunt continues for 2 suspects after Sask. stabbings leave 10 dead, 15 hospitalized | CBC News
RCMP have issued a dangerous persons alert across Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, after multiple people were stabbed early Sunday morning in James Smith Cree Nation and the nearby village of Weldon, Sask.
In a news conference at 3:40 p.m. CST, police confirmed 10 people are dead and at least 15 people have been hospitalized, following a stabbing spree in 13 different locations.
Such horrible news. Hopefully the suspects are caught soon, and without the loss of more lives.
Event after event shows that the RCMP has very serious command and control issues. The bizarre thing is that they think they are good enough to train people around the globe in policing methods.Such horrible news. Hopefully the suspects are caught soon, and without the loss of more lives.
A veteran is amongst one of the 10 so killed so far. I received this news from one of my Facebook groups.
Event after event shows that the RCMP has very serious command and control issues. The bizarre thing is that they think they are good enough to train people around the globe in policing methods.Such horrible news. Hopefully the suspects are caught soon, and without the loss of more lives.
Why are you blaming the RCMP at this time?
Event after event shows that the RCMP has very serious command and control issues. The bizarre thing is that they think they are good enough to train people around the globe in policing methods.Such horrible news. Hopefully the suspects are caught soon, and without the loss of more lives.
What were the RCMP's command and control issues this time?
"Known to police". I'm waiting to see what their rap sheets look like and the severity of the sentences they were given.
CBC is reporting that Myles Sanderson had been serving a nearly five-year federal sentence for assault, robbery, mischief and uttering threats. He got a statutory release, and then disappeared.
The RCMP is only good at being a paramilitary arm of the oil industry. They do that well but policing communities is beyond its abilities.
Here is the policing timeline. It sure looks like the same procedure of chasing their tails for a couple of hours that happened in other instances. The result is they got away, The Mounties never get their man seems to be the modern refrain.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/timeline-of-the-police-response-to-stabbin...
One of the two accused RCMP are seeking in connection with a string of fatal stabbings in Saskatchewan on Sunday has been found dead, police confirmed Monday.
Damien Sanderson, 31, was found dead with wounds that did not appear to be self-inflicted, said Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP.
Myles Sanderson, 30, is still at large and is wanted. The RCMP also confirmed Monday at the media briefing that the two are brothers.
Parole records reveal Saskatchewan suspect's violent history | CBC News
Long before he became the chief suspect in a mass killing and the subject of a multi-province manhunt, Myles Sanderson had a history of explosive violence, according to Parole Board of Canada documents from February of this year.
Over two decades, Sanderson, 30, racked up 59 convictions for assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats, assaulting a police officer, and robbery. Roughly half of the offences were for breaches or failure to comply with pre-existing orders. Because of his violent behavior he has a lifetime prohibited weapons ban.
Saskatchewan stabbing suspect was not considered a risk by parole board, report shows | Globalnews.ca
Seven months before the mass killing in rural Saskatchewan, a parole official ruled that the key suspect did not pose a danger and that releasing him would help him become a “law-abiding citizen.”
A Parole Board of Canada decision dated Feb. 1 found that Myles Sanderson would “not present an undue risk,” and freeing him would “contribute to the protection of society” by facilitating his reintegration.
“The Board is satisfied that your risk is manageable in the community, if you live with your [blacked out] maintain sobriety and employment, and continue with developing supports, including getting therapy,” the board wrote.
My emotional reaction is that he shouldn't have been released but he was not guilty of a crime that would bring a life sentence without parole or designation as a dangerous offender that would never be released. That means sooner or later he would re-enter society.
This type of killing spree is a suicide mission. He knows that sooner or later he will be caught or killed. The focus for violent crimes should be public safety not punishment. Punishment seems very ineffective as a violence prevention method. From that perspective incarceration is just the first step and a small one at that if they will be released within months or years. Every prisoner should likely be getting regular socialization therapy and genuine vocational training of some sort. If we just stick them in prison violent anti-social prisoners won't be different when they get out from when they entered the system.
On the other hand incarceration is under-utilized for white-collar crime. White-collar crime is calculated not driven by anger or desperation or inability to function successfully socially or lack of opportunities. More executives deserve a seat on a hard bench for a few years. That would discourage white collar crime.
It might even lead to less crime over-all. Uneven wealth distribution fuels crime in general.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80897-8
Humans sometimes cooperate to mutual advantage, and sometimes exploit one another. In industrialised societies, the prevalence of exploitation, in the form of crime, is related to the distribution of economic resources: more unequal societies tend to have higher crime, as well as lower social trust. We created a model of cooperation and exploitation to explore why this should be. Distinctively, our model features a desperation threshold, a level of resources below which it is extremely damaging to fall. Agents do not belong to fixed types, but condition their behaviour on their current resource level and the behaviour in the population around them. We show that the optimal action for individuals who are close to the desperation threshold is to exploit others. This remains true even in the presence of severe and probable punishment for exploitation, since successful exploitation is the quickest route out of desperation, whereas being punished does not make already desperate states much worse. Simulated populations with a sufficiently unequal distribution of resources rapidly evolve an equilibrium of low trust and zero cooperation: desperate individuals try to exploit, and non-desperate individuals avoid interaction altogether. Making the distribution of resources more equal or increasing social mobility is generally effective in producing a high cooperation, high trust equilibrium; increasing punishment severity is not.
Humans are often described as an unusually cooperative or ‘ultrasocial’ species1. The truth is more complex: humans from the same society can cooperate for mutual benefit; or they can simply co-exist; or they can actively exploit one another, as in, for example, crime. A theory of human sociality should ideally predict what mix of these alternatives will emerge under which circumstances. Comparing across industrialised societies, higher inequality—greater dispersion in the distribution of economic resources across individuals—is associated with higher crime and lower social trust2,3,4,5,6,7. These associations appear empirically robust, and meet epidemiological criteria for being considered causal8. However, the nature of the causal mechanisms is still debated. The effects of inequality are macroscopic phenomena, seen most clearly by comparing aggregates such as countries or states. It is their micro-foundations in individual psychology and behaviour that still require clarification.
Under-privileged people are lacking in rewards not punishments. It is bizarre that we can look at statistics for who is incarcerated and not make the socio-economic connection.
My mother was an alcoholic. She died just short of 90. Most of the time her drinking was steady from morning til night but eventually she would end up going on a binge and ending up so sick from alcohol poisoning she had to spend a week or two in hospital. The ambulance workers were always so kind and gentle with her. She was admitted quickly and given blood tests and sedatives to make sure she didn't suffer through alcohol withdrawal. Her blood was tested daily to rebalance her medications.
This was only a few years ago, the year before Covid. I'm sure things have deteriorated since then but indigenous people would be stunned to have been met with such treatment when they are falling down drunk.
When I compare the compassionate care bestowed on my mother to the treatment meted out to Joyce Echaquan the difference could not be more stark. Joyce Echaquan died at the age of 37 because she was an indigenous woman. This was Quebec, not Saskatchewan but from what I hear the situation is similar across the nation.
Bringing everything down to individual responsibility cripples our ability to improve as a society. Society isn't a bunch of individuals. We must cooperate for the benefit of all or suffer needlessly as individuals.
..txs pondering!
That was very generous of you to share your personal experience, Pondering. I am happy that your mother received respectful and compassionate care - everyone deserves that and one never knows whether that care exists under difficult circumstances (i.e. harsh judgement based on behaviour only).
I believe you are correct, that that kind of respect and compassion is rarely extended to Indigenous patients/clients/distress calls etc. That is racism first and foremost mingled with judgemental perception (the latter can apply to almost anyone who displays unhealthy habits contributing to their poor health outcomes).
Unless Canadians collectively oppose the systematic demolition of public health care, there ain't going to be much 'compassionate care' left for anyone but those who can afford the privatized version.
Made the mistake of watching CBC's the National last night. Always get the creeps watching Adrienne Arsenault since her first 'big break' reporting on the 1995 Gustafsen Lake crisis for CBC.
While under RCMP siege, Tspeten sundancers later told me how she brought their elders tobacco and promised to 'tell their story to the world.' Then used her privileged access and conversations to fuck them over with her dirty journalism of demonization.
Later it was revealed at trial that the entire BC msm contingent, including Arsenault and CBC were firmly under the thumb of the RCMP media liason with which they collaborated fully in portraying the Tspeten Sundance camp as 'fanatics and terrorists.'
Now she's 'chief correspondent' and The National's bingo-caller, lying her face off on Russia/Ukraine and all the big stories. I guess it worked. Practice makes perfect.
Mental health and alcohol and substance use supports and services are far too difficult to access in Canada. Counselling is also not anywhere near adequately funded by Medicare. Affordable housing is also not adequately provided for.
Vultures, Media and FNs
https://twitter.com/Ash_Stewart_/status/1567223454234976259
"An RCMP officer just told me journalists have been trying to sneak on to the James Smith Cree Nation reserve by pretending they're delivering food..."
Canadian settler-state media at work.
Canadian settler-state media at work.
Classic supply and demand.
It's also what you get when you have a government that pressures police to release investigation details in open murder cases in order to support political plans (gun ban).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/06/psychologist-devas...
As a clinical psychologist who has been working in NHS services for a decade, I’ve seen first hand how we are failing people by locating their problems within them as some kind of mental disorder or psychological issue, and thereby depoliticising their distress. Will six sessions of CBT, designed to target “unhelpful” thinking styles, really be effective for someone who doesn’t know how they’re going to feed their family for another week? Antidepressants aren’t going to eradicate the relentless racial trauma a black man is surviving in a hostile workplace, and branding people who are enduring sexual violence with a psychiatric disorder (in a world where two women a week are murdered in their own home) does nothing to keep them safe. Unsurprisingly, mindfulness isn’t helping children who are navigating poverty, peer pressure and competitive exam-driven school conditions, where bullying and social media harm are rife.
If a plant were wilting we wouldn’t diagnose it with “wilting-plant-syndrome” – we would change its conditions. Yet when humans are suffering under unliveable conditions, we’re told something is wrong with us, and expected to keep pushing through. To keep working and producing, without acknowledging our hurt.
In efforts to destigmatise mental distress, “mental illness” is framed as an “illness like any other” – rooted in supposedly flawed brain chemistry. In reality, recent research concluded that depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain. Ironically, suggesting we have a broken brain for life increases stigma and disempowerment. What’s most devastating about this myth is that the problem and the solution are positioned in the person, distracting us from the environments that cause our distress.
(the chemical imbalance comment is not quite true. Only serotonin has been challenged)
-
Sask. First Nations say RCMP were warned about Shawn Moostoos before fatal shootings
quote:
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations says the RCMP was previously warned about Shawn Moostoos, the man accused of murdering two people and wounding another last weekend on the James Smith Cree Nation reserve in northeast Saskatchewan.
The FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in the province, said in a statement that the shootings are part of a rash of recent preventable tragedies experienced by First Nations. The organization said the events were all connected to drugs, alcohol abuse, mental health "and the lack of proactive care and attention."
"With proper action, they could have been prevented," the federation stated.....
..i cropped this statement in order for it to be readable on babble.
Myles Sanderson, suspect in Sask. stabbing rampage, arrested; CBC News; September 7, 2022
The surviving suspect in a stabbing rampage in Saskatchewan has been arrested, according to RCMP.
RCMP say Myles Sanderson was taken into police custody near Rosthern, Sask., at about 3:30 p.m. CST Wednesday.
Around 3:00 p.m. CST, Saskatchewan RCMP issued an emergency alert about a person with a knife travelling in a vehicle, last seen in Wakaw, about 90 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
RCMP told people in the Wakaw area to seek shelter immediately and shelter in place. They warn people to be cautious about letting others into their residence, to not approach suspicious persons or pick up hitchhikers.
The stabbing rampage left 10 people dead and another 18 injured in the James Smith Cree Nation area and in the nearby village Weldon, Sask.
Authorities had been searching for the main suspect Myles Sanderson, 32, since Sunday.
Sanderson has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and breaking and entering. His brother, Damien Sanderson, 31, was also facing charges before he was found dead on Monday.
Nice to see that he was captured alive.
Nice to see that he was captured alive.
The parole board is already working on their report saying he's unlike to reoffend.
Nice to see that he was captured alive.
The parole board is already working on their report saying he's unlike to reoffend.
Looks like he will not be in front of the parole board, looks like he took the coward's way out and ended his own life.
It is better for his victims and their families that he is dead. They won't have to hear about him for years as the case worked it way through the courts. They won't have to show up for parole hearings or listen to his excuses.
Wow, what did I miss? Myles Sanderson was only taken into custody this afternoon and without harm which was a comforting change of pace. Did suicide occur while in detention?
Paladin, your sarcasm isn't appreciated. I suspect that the James Smith FN community do NOT blame the parole system for this tragic and horrific massacre.
The news is reporting he did a similar knife attack in 2015.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9111785/saskatchewan-mass-killing-suspect-com...
I think "similar" is an over-exaggeration by the media (and of course the inbetween the lines accusations against the justice system and specifically the parole board).
The 2015 knife attack led to one count of attempted murder and one count of aggravated assault against his in-law parents. That is a far cry from 10 possibly 11 deadly stabbings and 18 more injured people.
It is obvious that Myles Sanderson has a violent history but most of his attacks have been personal (family or extended family etc) and not a serial killer or someone likely to attack random strangers unless feeling extremely threatened.
Given his history, it really is hard to fathom how events unfolded to lead to so many attacks at multiple locations.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/06/psychologist-devas...As a clinical psychologist who has been working in NHS services for a decade, I’ve seen first hand how we are failing people by locating their problems within them as some kind of mental disorder or psychological issue, and thereby depoliticising their distress. Will six sessions of CBT, designed to target “unhelpful” thinking styles, really be effective for someone who doesn’t know how they’re going to feed their family for another week? Antidepressants aren’t going to eradicate the relentless racial trauma a black man is surviving in a hostile workplace, and branding people who are enduring sexual violence with a psychiatric disorder (in a world where two women a week are murdered in their own home) does nothing to keep them safe. Unsurprisingly, mindfulness isn’t helping children who are navigating poverty, peer pressure and competitive exam-driven school conditions, where bullying and social media harm are rife.
If a plant were wilting we wouldn’t diagnose it with “wilting-plant-syndrome” – we would change its conditions. Yet when humans are suffering under unliveable conditions, we’re told something is wrong with us, and expected to keep pushing through. To keep working and producing, without acknowledging our hurt.
In efforts to destigmatise mental distress, “mental illness” is framed as an “illness like any other” – rooted in supposedly flawed brain chemistry. In reality, recent research concluded that depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance of the brain. Ironically, suggesting we have a broken brain for life increases stigma and disempowerment. What’s most devastating about this myth is that the problem and the solution are positioned in the person, distracting us from the environments that cause our distress.
(the chemical imbalance comment is not quite true. Only serotonin has been challenged)
I think support for economic and social equity and support for mental health and substance use disorder programs go hand in hand and are not necessarily adversarial. I think mental health and substance use disorder programs are an important part of our overall health care system that should support economic and social equity.
I agree with you JKR.
I finally caught up with the latest news about Sanderson's death due to self-inflicted wound.
Overall, a horrific community tragedy and the worst outcome of a failed system of supporting people with mental health and substance abuse disorders. The road ahead will be a rough one for the James Smith FN community.
This whole series of events is upsetting to the native communities across Canada. My family is in mourning for the community, and in mourning for those two young men. I knew in my heart that the brother would end his life in some way, because of the death of his brother. We don't know if he had a part in it. But the fact remains that many people were murdered over the few hours of this terrible rampage. The hurt of that is still being processed. But I think we have to remember that this type of thing almost never happens on a First Nation. Yes, there is violence, and much of it is fueled by drugs and alcohol. We don't know as yet what kinds of drugs they were, but I think we can be certain they were on drugs. It is easier to numb your pain with street drugs, if there is no other way to stop the pain of remembered trauma. There are very little resources for our people to deal with mental illness. We as First Nations people share in the collective grief of our people who have died by suicide, and now it seems that we are now on the verge of killing each other. This is a fresh wave of pain. Let us have some space. We do not need any more negative comments about these two young men. Whatever grief and pain they have caused, they are now in the Creator's hands. And now we as First Nations have to help each other.
I think "similar" is an over-exaggeration by the media (and of course the inbetween the lines accusations against the justice system and specifically the parole board).
The 2015 knife attack led to one count of attempted murder and one count of aggravated assault against his in-law parents. That is a far cry from 10 possibly 11 deadly stabbings and 18 more injured people.
It is obvious that Myles Sanderson has a violent history but most of his attacks have been personal (family or extended family etc) and not a serial killer or someone likely to attack random strangers unless feeling extremely threatened.
Given his history, it really is hard to fathom how events unfolded to lead to so many attacks at multiple locations.
Myles Sanderson was accused in 2015 of trying to kill Earl Burns by “repeatedly stabbing with a knife.” Sanderson also attacked Joyce Burns, wounding her, his court file indicates.
There seems to be a pattern with this individual that was ignored.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9111785/saskatchewan-mass-killing-suspect-com...
I think support for economic and social equity and support for mental health and substance use disorder programs go hand in hand and are not necessarily adversarial. I think mental health and substance use disorder programs are an important part of our overall health care system that should support economic and social equity.
Let us have some space. We do not need any more negative comments about these two young men.
I hear you zazzo and won't be posting on this further. Suggest others do the same.
Looks like he will not be in front of the parole board, looks like he took the coward's way out and ended his own life.
Yup.
On January 26, 2015, Sanderson was charged in Prince Albert, Sask., with attempted murder, aggravated assault and weapons possession following the knife attack on his in-laws.He was also charged with breach of probation for failing to comply with a judge’s order in 2014 that he not consume alcohol and “keep the peace and be of good behaviour,” his court file shows.
Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, assault and threatening to kill Earl Burns. He was sentenced on Oct. 28, 2015, to two years, less a day and fined.
Tried to stab is his inlaws to death. Sentenced to 2 years less a day, and probably didn't even serve half of it.
I would hazard a guess that he is somewhere on the fetal alcohol spectrum. Our justice system has not figured out what do do with the multi-generational fall out from our racist residential school system. Our justice system locks up people indefinitely whose mentally illness caused them to not know what they were doing and thus have no criminal intent. However FASD is not considered the type of psychotic illness that gets you sent down that road. If you are of average intelligence then FASD is not a reason, like a psychotic break, to remove the intent from your actions and thus you go through the same system as other people. This flaw affects all FASD people but our indigenous communities suffer far greater from the disease than the rest of our society.
A good friend used to work with an agency and one of her clients was a woman with FASD who had set fire to two different hotel rooms and had a very violent temper. Because her intellectual capabilities were low she got a different sentencing route. People on the spectrum understand what they do but they never ever learn and keep doing the same dangerous behavior. The second time at the hearing she told the judge that she had promised the first judge that she would not to set a fire in a garbage can again. She kept that promise and set the curtains on fire in the next room. Many like my former son-in law can sweet talk to get themselves out of situations but they still make the same mistakes over and over.
My heart goes out to the traumatized community that has suffered this tragedy.
I would hazard a guess that he is somewhere on the fetal alcohol spectrum.
That has also crossed my mind and I’m sure other peoples minds. Our society horribly fails people who have fasd. The vast majority never even get diagnosed.
Indigenous culture
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/james-smith-cree-nation-pres...
There was also a powerful moment of forgiveness between the brother of one of the victims and the partner of one of the alleged assailants.
Darryl Burns, who lost his sister Lydia Gloria Burns, put his arm around the wife of Damien Sanderson, who was charged with first-degree murder following Sunday's attacks.
"Our family is here to forgive," Darryl Burns said. "This woman shouldn't have to bear that kind of guilt and shame and responsibility."
Community members hugged Damien's wife as she sobbed.
Indigenous culture
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/james-smith-cree-nation-pres...
There was also a powerful moment of forgiveness between the brother of one of the victims and the partner of one of the alleged assailants.
Darryl Burns, who lost his sister Lydia Gloria Burns, put his arm around the wife of Damien Sanderson, who was charged with first-degree murder following Sunday's attacks.
"Our family is here to forgive," Darryl Burns said. "This woman shouldn't have to bear that kind of guilt and shame and responsibility."
Community members hugged Damien's wife as she sobbed.
Incredible display of humanity.
This whole series of events is upsetting to the native communities across Canada. My family is in mourning for the community, and in mourning for those two young men. I knew in my heart that the brother would end his life in some way, because of the death of his brother. We don't know if he had a part in it. But the fact remains that many people were murdered over the few hours of this terrible rampage. The hurt of that is still being processed. But I think we have to remember that this type of thing almost never happens on a First Nation. Yes, there is violence, and much of it is fueled by drugs and alcohol. We don't know as yet what kinds of drugs they were, but I think we can be certain they were on drugs. It is easier to numb your pain with street drugs, if there is no other way to stop the pain of remembered trauma. There are very little resources for our people to deal with mental illness. We as First Nations people share in the collective grief of our people who have died by suicide, and now it seems that we are now on the verge of killing each other. This is a fresh wave of pain. Let us have some space. We do not need any more negative comments about these two young men. Whatever grief and pain they have caused, they are now in the Creator's hands. And now we as First Nations have to help each other.
Thank you, zazzo. You have eloquently explained so much of what I have felt about this tragedy.
I was extremely touched by the Chief showing his love and support for Damien Sanderson's wife. There is no need for vengence or accusations when the whole community is suffering this tragedy. And there is plenty of room for opening our hearts to truly understanding the ongoing trauma felt across generations from residential school and other child abductions (60s Scoop and family social services).
