Teen’s cold death had repercussions
Michelle Stewart looks at lingering impact of police ‘starlight tours.’
On Nov. 29, 1990, the body of Neil Stonechild, a Saulteaux First Nation teen, was found frozen in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon. It was -28 C. He was just 17 years old at the time of his death. He was found wearing only jeans and a light jacket and was missing one shoe.
Teenager. Face down. Light jacket. Jeans. One shoe. -28 C.
On Dec. 5, 1990, the Saskatoon Police Service closed the investigation into the death of Neil Stonechild. Despite visible injuries to the body of the Indigenous teenager, the file was closed. The investigation closed prior to receiving the coroner’s report, prior to receiving the toxicology report, and prior to completing interviews with all witnesses.
In her book, Dying from Improvement, critical race scholar Sherene Razack discusses the Stonechild inquiry. She reports that the investigating officer said: “The kid went out, got drunk, went for a walk and froze to death.”
It would take over a decade and the freezing deaths of two more men and the near-death of another to crack the case open. Neil, the teenager, once dismissed as drunk and responsible for his own death, would become the subject of a public inquiry that would lead to the firing of two police officers. His death would become synonymous with a racialized police practice called “starlight tours.”
Starlight tours describes a practice of police taking Indigenous people (said to have been picked up drunk or rowdy) and dropping them off at the edge of the city in the middle of a winter night. As Razak writes: “That there is a popular term (for this practice) is testimony to the fact that it happened more than once. The practice of drop-offs is a lethal one when the temperature is -28 C and if the long walk back to town is undertaken without proper clothing and shoes.”
It’s now November 2019, and I am talking to Neil’s brother, Chris Lindgren Astakeesic, about his brother’s death nearly 30 years ago. Chris recalls when his sister told him that Neil had died.
He was devastated. He had only been reunited with his younger brother and family shortly before, after being in the foster care system and living outside Saskatchewan. Coming back into his family’s life, Chris made an immediate connection with Neil.
Chris remembers Neil as many others did, as a “fun-loving and very caring” person, adding that he “was a great kid and great brother. He loved life.”
Neil was wearing the letterman jacket that Chris gave him when he was found in the field. Stella, Neil’s mom, talked about the jacket during the inquiry into his death. The jacket had particular importance to Chris. Neil had treasured it and so Chris gave Neil the jacket before leaving for a trip to Ontario.
Given the sentimental importance of the jacket, Chris went to the police after the investigation concluded to request Neil’s belongings. The Saskatoon police told him they couldn’t find it. The jacket and Neil’s other possessions were never returned. Chris tells me his mom, Stella, “was heartbroken.”
Chris speaks with a broken voice, recalling the time around Neil’s death and his experiences attending the inquiry.
I ask Chris what he thinks happened to Neil that night.
Chris mentions two police constables.
“I think Hartwig and Senger had some fun, tried to scare him and it went too far,” he says.
Chris recalls that Neil’s friend, Jason Roy, reported seeing Neil in the back of a police car that night.
The findings of the inquiry established that constables Larry Hartwig and Bradley Senger “took Stonechild into custody” and that the injuries to his body “were likely caused by handcuffs.”
Hartwig and Senger argued their innocence and said they did not have contact with Stonechild that night. Evidence to the contrary was presented.
The evidence led Justice
David Wright to conclude that Hartwig did recall the events that night and as such “his assertions are deliberate deception designed to conceal his involvement.” The inquiry, through witness testimony, offered a lesson in systemic racism in a settler state. But the recommendations did not address systemic racism and instead focused primarily on race relations.
Hartwig and Senger were dismissed from duty in November 2004 within a month of the report’s release. They appealed. Their appeals were rejected and the courts upheld the findings of the inquiry. The image of Neil Stonechild’s body lying in a frozen field still haunts the Prairies.
The starlight tours continue to have ripple effects and impact relations between Indigenous peoples and police. The release of the 2004 Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild called for reforms including more police accountability.
Of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, 18 deal with the criminal justice system. No. 39 calls upon the federal government to develop a national plan to collect and publish data on the criminal victimization of Aboriginal people, and No. 38 calls upon all levels of government to commit to eliminating the overrepresentation of Aboriginal youth in custody over the next decade.
The commission also placed emphasis on truth. We need to tell the truth about police practices and starlight tours in the Prairies.
Concerns have been raised by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.
“We have come a long way in 15 years, but there is always room for improvement,” Dutch Lerat, the vice chief for the federation, told APTN. “We urge the ministry of justice to improve upon the public complaints process with emphasis on creating a civilian-led oversight authority.”
Saskatchewan is one of the last provinces to adopt independent civilian oversight despite ongoing, high-profile cases that raise concerns about how police work.
I spoke to Chris on the phone between anniversaries that no family should have to know: the freezing death of your loved one and the release of the findings of a public inquiry into their death.
He said: “I am hoping (other families) can go back to this story for future reference and for future kids, so this doesn’t happen again.”
In honour of his memory: Neil Stonechild was a 17-year-old boy. His family loved him. Neil froze to death and some of the last people to see him alive were two police officers. Neil Stonechild died as a result of the starlight tours.
Michelle Stewart is associate professor of gender, religion and critical studies and academic director of the community research unit at the University of Regina. This article originally appeared online at theconversation.com, an independent source of news and views, from the academic and research community.