A Tactical Armoured RCMP Vehicle drives past a police roadblock set up on the James Smith Cree Nation on Sept. 6, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu)

By CKOM News

James Smith Attacks

Senator calls for answers from RCMP over actions prior to mass stabbing

Oct 2, 2022 | 5:05 PM

A Saskatchewan senator is demanding answers from the RCMP.

Denise Batters called on the Senate leader to demand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government have the RCMP answer questions surrounding why more wasn’t done prior to the mass stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation and in Weldon on Sept. 4.

Batters brought up a Global News article which indicated that the RCMP had been called by Damien Sanderson’s wife, Skye, the day before the mass stabbings took place. In the article, Skye said Damien and his brother, Myles, had stolen her vehicle and were intimidating people.

The police returned the vehicle but didn’t locate the two.

“I was shocked and astounded,” the Conservative Senate member told the Roy Green Show on Saturday, “particularly because the RCMP was refusing to answer questions for quite some time.”

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Batters said the RCMP had indicated it would answer questions but then refused to give a response.

“I asked (the Senate leader) to get the Trudeau government (to) demand that RCMP provide these answers that the victims of these terrible, heinous crimes, their families, the people of Saskatchewan, and our whole country deserve.”

The mass stabbing saw 10 people killed and 18 others injured in the attacks. Damien Sanderson was found dead on Sept. 5 on the James Smith Cree Nation.

Myles died while in police custody on Sept. 7 after a police pursuit.

“They won’t be judged in a criminal trial and there are many parts of this story that, yes, will have to wait for an inquest and independent investigations, but these types of answers, the public needs to have confidence in their safety and they need to have reassurance and peace,” Batters said.

“These are not the kinds of answers that need to wait for months and years and that’s why I was demanding them now. The entire province of Saskatchewan was terrorized by these killings for days.”

Myles was wanted on a warrant but the RCMP had not taken him into custody.

“(He was) apparently hiding in what some people have called plain sight for months and (the RCMP) weren’t diligently searching for them so they need to answer questions about that,” Batters said.

“People in Saskatchewan and all throughout Canada need to have confidence their national police force — in the areas where that is the primary policing force — is actually taking steps to ensure Canadians are safe.”

Batters said there are other options that can be taken to get these answers but those can be lengthy and she believes these answers need to come now.