[IPSM] {CBC} Stonechild inquiry final report due

[Stefan Christoff]

Stonechild inquiry final report due
{http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/10/26/stonechild_inquiry041026.html}

SASKATOON - The family of an aboriginal teenager found frozen to death in
a Saskatoon field is hoping for answers Tuesday when the final report of a
year-long provincial inquiry is released.

Headed by Justice David Wright, the inquiry cannot assign blame, but will
look into how police handled the case of Neil Stonechild. The
17-year-old's body was found in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon in
1990.

In 1991, Saskatoon police concluded Stonechild froze to death while trying
to turn himself into a correctional centre.

However, interest in the case was renewed in 2000 when Saskatchewan's
justice minister asked the RCMP to look into the circumstances of his
death. That investigation concluded there was not enough evidence to lay
charges.

However, accusations that he was abandoned by police sparked the
provincial inquiry into the teenager's death and how the subsequent
investigation was handled.

At the inquiry, two Saskatoon police officers denied even seeing
Stonechild the night he disappeared.

However, Stonechild's friend, Jason Roy, testified he saw Stonechild in
the back of a police cruiser the night he disappeared.

Also, autopsy photos of the body showed marks across Stonechild's face
that correspond exactly with the shape of a handcuff.

"It says to me, that at least for some time, Neil Stonechild was in police
custody," said Sy Halyk, lawyer for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian
Nations.

Saskatoon police admitted on the stand they botched the investigation,
including losing evidence, while the deputy police chief said he misled
media covering the case.

Stonechild family lawyer Don Worme says they are looking for answers.

"How he came to be in such a terrible situation, how he came to die in
such a lonely manner," said Worme.

Stonechild is one of three First Nations people to die in similar
questionable circumstances in the province over the past 15 years.
Inquests into the two other deaths were inconclusive.

-----------------------