James Smith inquest asks police to prioritize warrants for repeat domestic violence offenders
CTV
The jury from the inquest into one of Canada’s most brutal mass killings suggested changes to release conditions, prison programming and police practices it says could help prevent future violence.
The jury from the inquest into one of Canada’s most brutal mass killings suggested changes to statutory release, prison programming and police practices it says could help prevent future violence.
The coroner’s inquest into Myles Sanderson’s September 2022 spree of fatal stabbings in the communities of James Smith Cree Nation and the village of Weldon was tasked with determining the cause of the 11 deaths and making recommendations to prevent similar atrocities in the future.
Over the last two weeks, the jury heard testimony from 30 witnesses and took in hundreds of pages of exhibits into evidence. The six jury members tasked with coming up with recommendations took about one day to deliberate.
On Wednesday afternoon, coroner Blaine Beaven acknowledged it’s been a hard road to walk for everyone involved.
"I want to acknowledge that this been an extraordinarily difficult few weeks. It's been difficult for the jury; it's been difficult for the council. And that pales completely in comparison to the difficulty that must have been felt by the survivors of the attacks, the families of those involved, and the community at large."
Throughout the proceedings, many James Smith residents said they hoped to see substantive changes to address the twin epidemics of drug addiction and violence in their community, better monitoring for violent offenders on supervised release, and more effort to catch those who breach their conditions.
The recommendations offered by both the jury and the lead coroner on Wednesday hewed close to those points.
