James Smith inquest lawyer points to distrust of RCMP within First Nation communities

Melfort, Sask. -

For the lawyer representing James Smith in the coroner’s inquest into the mass stabbings that shook that community in 2022, the lack of faith in the RCMP was a key issue.

In the days before Myles Sanderson killed 11 people and injured 17 others in the span of several hours, he and his brother Damien had several violent encounters in the community that went unreported to police.

In cross-examination, James Smith lawyer Keith Brown asked S/Sgt. Robin Zentner why so many First Nations people are reluctant to call the RCMP.

“I mean, the RCMP is not a perfect organization. We have challenges, just like every other organization. Are there things that we can do better when it comes to Indigenous communities? Absolutely,” he said.

Some people may have had a bad experience with the RCMP in the past, says Zentner.

“There might be situations where, where a police officer treated a family poorly, or a member of a family poorly. And, you know, that has been shared around with other members of that particular family and so they have a maybe a global dislike for the police based on one particular incident,” he said.

“Obviously we are striving to be a lot better than we were in the past, trying to learn from those mistakes.”

Looking back, Zentner said better communications between RCMP and the community could have helped officers intervene before things escalated.

Brown relayed questions for Zentner from family members of the James Smith victims.

“Can you explain to the jury how and when did the RCMP pull all of those different digital [message] logs that we saw in your presentation today?”

Zentner said the messages were obtained by the technological crime section, who physically searched phones, either by consent of the owners or with judicial authorization, plus some records obtained through the phone company by court order.

Many messages between Damien and his partner Skye were shared with the inquest, but police never recovered Myles’ phone, said Zentner.

“Is it unusual for there to be almost no digital records, other than the smatterings of Facebook messages sent from Myles that we’ve seen,” Brown asked.

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“Not everybody does have a phone,” Zentner said. “So, it's not uncommon for, especially in some of our other homicide investigations, for people to not have their own phone.”

The lawyer representing Correctional Service Canada offered some insight into why police may not have recovered a phone from Myles.

He pointed to a transcript of a statement Myles’ partner Vanessa Burns gave to police, which was included in the documents shared with the inquest.

“I’m not going to suggest that I know your investigation better than you, but I have this, that I’m going to give to you,” he said.

According to the transcript, Burns told police Myles did not have a phone or use social media apps anymore because he was paranoid.

Questions were also raised about the references to Terror Squad that animated some of the messages shared with the inquest.

Myles seemed to have it out for the Terror Squad, Brown said, but in Brandon Generaux’s testimony, Myles is described as saying “Terror Squad” while committing the attack.

Zentner said he could not explain the comment, and he couldn’t recall if the investigation uncovered any evidence to confirm or refute anyone’s connections to the gang.

In the coming days, the inquest is expected to hear testimony from the Parole Board of Canada, which may include details about its investigation into the reasons why Myles was released from prison early.