James Smith inquest: Mass killer demonstrated 'good behaviour' before release

A coroner’s inquest heard the man who committed a brutal mass stabbing in September 2022 made “significant” improvements while participating in programming before his transfer from the Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

On Tuesday, the inquest into the murder of 11 people in the communities of James Smith Cree Nation and village of Weldon heard testimony from a correctional worker who had ongoing interactions with Myles Sanderson during his time in federal prison.

Jessica Diks, an institutional parole officer with the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), said Sanderson was assigned to her in 2019 and she worked with him until February 2021, when he was transferred to the minimum security Willow Cree Healing Lodge at her recommendation.

When she met Sanderson, Diks said he came off as “extremely guarded and adversarial; accusatory.”

He was participating in a program to identify some ways to better manage himself, but Diks initially suspected he was “jumping through hoops” to get an early release.

At one point, he was offered to move into an area of the prison where he would have access to more cultural supports, but he declined it because it would mean a change to his exercise schedule.

“He just passed up a very good opportunity. And my impression was it was because he didn't want to be told what to do. That isn't somebody who is ready to change.”

Over time, the inquest heard Sanderson opened up with his program facilitators and spoke with them about some of the struggles he faced.

“He worked very closely with the program elder and his attitude with the correctional officers, for instance, was less adversarial. His approach to me was less adversarial. He didn't frequently ask for help, necessarily, but he was willing to accept advice,” said Diks.

At one point, Sanderson’s participation in a high-intensity program was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Diks says this only reinforced his feelings of being mistreated by the system.

“He had committed to working within his program and was showing change, working with staff, making strides, but through no fault of his own was unable to proceed or move forward with his case, and that was very frustrating for him.”

In May 2021 Sanderson applied for parole. Diks wrote a letter recommending the board deny his applications for day and full parole.

The inquest heard she had concerns about his request to live with his common-law partner Vanessa Burns, because of Sanderson’s history of domestic violence.

She did, however, offer her support for Sanderson to move to a minimum security facility, in this case, the Willow Cree Healing Lodge, even though he was rated as a medium security-level risk.

Diks told the inquest she believed Sanderson would benefit from the cultural programming offered at the healing lodge.

In her report to the warden at Willow Cree, Diks said Sanderson presented a low risk to public safety if he continued to abstain from substance use, remained engaged with his correctional plan, and maintained a positive attitude.

The coroner’s counsel asked Diks if she thought there was anything they could have done differently with Sanderson to prevent the killings on Sept. 4, 2022.

“From an institutional perspective, I don't know that there really is much that could have been done differently,” she said.

In cross-examination, she said there was nothing in Sanderson’s record to warrant particular concern.

“For a violent offender over 30-years-old, Mr. Sanderson’s record isn’t particularly remarkable.”

'Very concerned for the children'

Late Tuesday afternoon, the inquest heard from Linda Flahr, a Saskatoon-based parole officer supervisor.

Flahr, who had no direct interactions with Sanderson, described some of the methods parole officers use to enforce conditions and factors they use to determine how often offenders must meet with their parole officer.

The inquest heard how Sanderson repeatedly lied to his parole officer upon his initial statutory release in October 2021 because he had been living with his common-law partner Vanessa Burns, something forbidden under his release conditions.

Flahr described a November 2021 phone call with Sanderson’s parole officer after Burns disclosed the breach.

“By the time the parole officer came to speak to me, he was quite concerned because he could hear Mr. Sanderson yelling quite loudly over the phone,” she said. “He was very concerned for the children that were in the home.”

The parole officer issued a suspension warrant, and Sanderson later turned himself in, returning to custody in the Saskatchewan Penitentiary until February 2022.

After that release, Flahr said the initial indications were that Sanderson had fallen in line.

Earlier in the day, a director with the federal correctional service defended the practice of releasing offenders from prison to complete their sentence in the community.

“When an offender has been in a federal prison and they're getting out into the community. You can imagine how, how exciting that could be,” said Cindy Gee, a district director with the CSC.

Gee says a gradual, supervised release of a person into the community can give correctional workers a better sense of how to manage an offender’s risk factors.

“We have a better ability to see how they're making out, to see how the risk is being managed, and to ensure public safety,” said Gee.

Parole is granted at the sole discretion of the parole board, but there is a legal right in Canada to statutory release, where an offender completes the final third of their prison sentence in the community.

Gee said CSC manages about 6,000 inmates in the prairies, and that at any given time about 2,000 of those people are serving their sentence in the community.

Prison officials can apply to detain an offender until the end of their sentence and skip the statutory release, but Gee says this means they have no chance to see how people respond to their newfound freedom.

“If someone gets detained to the end of their sentence and they get out at warrant expiry, they're gone,” she said.

At the end of an inmate’s sentence, Gee says they send a package to police to let them know the sentence is complete, to share the most recent photo they have, and tell police where they think the inmate is being released.

“And they’re gone. There’s no one checking on them. There’s nobody making sure that they’re not using. There’s no one following up with their family to make sure that they’re not drinking, like, they’re there without any supervision,” she said.

“So for us, we will always look at an opportunity to manage and monitor someone on a structured release.”

Gee says Sanderson was considered for detention, to have his right to statutory release revoked, “but when we reviewed him, his behaviour was good. He was actively engaged in high-intensity programming.”

When Sanderson was eventually released, the inquest heard there were a number of special conditions applied by the parole board, including the no-contact order with Burns.

Keith Brown, the lawyer representing James Smith in the inquest, questioned Gee about whether correctional workers considered contacting James Smith leadership about Sanderson’s release.

The inquest heard Sanderson had earlier applied for a “Section 84” release, which engages the home community of Indigenous offenders as active participants in their release. It also requires an offender to share their entire criminal record with the community.

At that time, Gee says the chief of James Smith was the point of contact. She said the band was supportive of Sanderson being released into James Smith but they had some requirements for him, including regular meetings with an addictions counsellor.

When Sanderson was let out, the Section 84 process was no longer in play. Because he opted to be released into Saskatoon instead of James Smith, no one from CSC contacted the band, Gee said.

The inquest heard Sanderson was under orders to meet his parole officer in person at least eight times a month, more frequent contact than average.

Darryl Burns, whose sister Lydia Gloria Burns was Sanderson’s tenth victim, told Gee it didn’t seem like Sanderson’s parole officer was keeping a close eye on him, since they knew he had broken his conditions and was unlawfully at large for months before he committed the brutal stabbings.

Gee said that once there’s an arrest warrant issued, it’s in the hands of police, not the parole officer.

The inquest is expected to run into a third week.

 In the coming days, the inquest will hear testimony from the parole officer assigned to Sanderson following his 2022 release.