One of the brothers who are said to have killed ten people in Canada is on the run, the motive for the crime is still unclear. Some see root cause in the collective trauma of First Nations.
In the province of Saskatchewan, the manhunt for one of the two men who are said to have killed ten people on Sunday is still in full swing. News that the suspected perpetrator had been sighted again in the James Smith First Nation community on Tuesday turned out to be misinformation, sparking renewed fear and terror for several hours. The background to the fact that shocked Canada is still unknown.
The federal police RCMP called on the population of the province to remain vigilant and careful. Police initially named brothers Damien and Myles Sanderson as suspects. Myles, 30, is on the run. His one-year older brother was found dead Monday in a field near the James Smith Cree Nation community. Since then, it has been puzzled what role Damien played in the crime. Is he the perpetrator or the victim? Did Myles kill his brother?
Rhonda Blackmore, the head of the RCMP in Saskatchewan, said Damien had injuries that he “could not have inflicted on himself”. Blackmore also indicated that Myles may be injured and need medical attention. “Even if he’s injured, that doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous,” she warned.
Police forces in the neighboring provinces of Alberta and Manitoba are also involved in the manhunt. According to police, both men are said to have stayed in Saskatchewan’s capital Regina, 300 kilometers south of the crime scenes. Regina’s chief of police, Evan Bray, said Tuesday night that Myles Sanderson was no longer in Regina. Therefore, the manhunt extends far into the province.
The police speak of 13 crime scenes. The number of injured has now increased from 15 to 18. Three injured are in critical condition, it said on Tuesday evening. Nine of the ten victims of the knife attacks early Sunday morning are members of the James Smith Cree Nation community in northern Saskatchewan.
It has not yet been officially confirmed that Myles and Damien Sanderson are First Nation members. But many statements from the community point to it. Myles is known for his violent behavior, community members said. In addition, the police say that some of the victims were targeted, which indicates that the alleged perpetrators knew some of the victims.
According to Canadian media, Myles Sanderson has a long history of criminal offenses that stretches back to his youth. He had been sentenced to more than four years in prison for multiple violent crimes. In the spring he was released under strict conditions to promote his reintegration into the community. However, he had apparently violated conditions in May and has been wanted by the police since then. Now he is accused of multiple murders.
First Nations in Canada
The James Smith Cree First Nation is a community and reservation in the Prairie province of Saskatchewan. It is home to three small First Nations – alongside James Smith, the Peter Chapman First Nation and the Chakastaypasin First Nation. A total of about 3,400 people belong to the community, but only about half of them live in northern Saskatchewan.
The more than 600 First Nations in Canada have a total of around one million members. About half of them do not live in their mostly rural communities, which are declared as “reservations”, but “off reserve” in the cities. The lack of prospects in the remote communities was often the reason that people moved to the cities. Where there is success in providing housing, building local economies and the Indigenous school system, and renewing traditions and culture, First Nations members are returning to their communities. Gerd Braune
The Saskatchewan tragedy has once again highlighted the social problems facing many of Canada’s Indigenous communities. Bobby Cameron, Chairman of the Federation of Independent Saskatchewan Indigenous Nations (FSIN), stated: “This is the kind of destruction we face when illegal drugs enter our communities.” Despite efforts over the past few decades, some of which have been successful to raise the standard of living in indigenous communities, there is still a gap in the standard of living between indigenous and non-indigenous people. Drugs, alcohol and violence are problems in many communities.
Darryl and Ivor Burns are brothers to 62-year-old Gloria Burns. The social worker was stabbed to death on Sunday while rushing to help other victims. “She died trying to help,” says Darryl Burns. The Burns brothers also attribute the act to drug and alcohol abuse and say that the alleged perpetrators were caught in a “cycle of trauma and dysfunction”.
The keyword “intergenerational trauma” refers to the wounds inflicted on the indigenous peoples by colonialism and the school system of residential schools. Indigenous children were required to attend these government residential schools, which were often remote from their communities and reservations, until the 1960s. In the schools, which were mostly run by churches, children were not allowed to speak their indigenous languages, and their identity and culture were destroyed away from their families.
This wreaked profound damage on indigenous communities for nearly a century, which is seen as one of the enduring causes of today’s problems. The discovery of graves of indigenous children around residential schools in spring 2021 and Pope Francis’ trip to Canada in July to apologize for the wrongs done to indigenous people by members of the Catholic Church marked the dark chapter of the Residential schools made headlines across the world again.
However, Ken Coates, director of the Indigenous Affairs program at the Macdonald Laurier Institute in Ottawa, warns against viewing the crime in the James Smith First Nation as evidence of “dysfunctionality” in indigenous communities. There have been several mass killings in recent years – for example in Portapique in the province of Nova Scotia. Such acts would have nothing to do with the ethnicity of a community.
Coates visited James Smith Church with students just two weeks ago. He says James Smith, like many other Indigenous communities, is struggling with the legacy of colonization and socio-economic disadvantage, but is also a resilient community determined to renew itself – including culturally. She runs a school and is working to break the “demoralizing cycle of welfare dependency” through economic activity. But now the community needs support to cope with the trauma of this act.
