Nearly a year after mass stabbing, James Smith Cree Nation leaders offer thanks
CTV
In a ceremony held Monday morning on James Smith Cree Nation, leaders formally offered thanks to those who offered aid in the aftermath of a mass stabbing that occurred on Labour Day weekend last year.
In a ceremony held Monday morning on James Smith Cree Nation, leaders formally offered thanks to those who offered aid in the aftermath of a mass stabbing that occurred on Labour Day weekend last year.
The Sept. 4 stabbing rampage left 11 dead and 17 injured and led to an intensive manhunt. The man responsible for the killings, Myles Sanderson died after going into medical distress shortly after his arrest on Sept. 7.
"There's a lot of horrific stories out there and yet there's a lot of resilience out there that they're balancing themselves to move forward," Chief Calvin Sanderson said while speaking to reporters after the morning ceremony.
Sanderson is chief of the Chakastaypasin Band, one of the three bands that jointly make up James Smith Cree Nation
"We need to start healing," Shirley Sanderson, an elder in the community, told reporters.
She said she was one of the first on the scene following the attacks.
"I'm still hurt [by] what happened last year ... All the houses, I had to walk around looking into them," Sanderson said.
Admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki’s defence lawyers have argued the accused had a history of schizophrenic delusions culminating in ‘catastrophic circumstances,’ while Crown prosecutors say the killings of four vulnerable Indigenous women were driven by Skibicki’s racist views and deviant sexual urges.