Tank: Saskatoon police move past ‘starlight tours’ blot with new chief

Article content

When Cameron McBride joined the Saskatoon force in 1997, the term “starlight tours” had yet to become linked in the public mind to the city’s police.

That same year, veteran police officer Brian Trainor described two fictional Saskatoon police officers who drop off a drunk man near the Queen Elizabeth Power Station on the outskirts of the city in a humour column he wrote for the Saskatoon Sun newspaper.

Article content

Article content

Three years later, in January 2000, the body of an Indigenous man, Rodney Naistus, was found in a field near the power station. A few days later, the body of another Indigenous man, Lawrence Wegner, was discovered nearby.

Another Indigenous man, Darrell Night, came forward to say two police officers had also dropped him off in the same area on a frigid night.

At the start of those two officers’ trial, the term “starlight tour” first appeared in the StarPhoenix on Sept. 11, 2001 in a story with the headline “All-white jury.” The officers were later found guilty of unlawful confinement.

A few months before that trial began, Saskatoon police chief Dave Scott had been shockingly dismissed by the city’s board of police commissioners, which was then chaired by mayor Jim Maddin.

Maddin, who had been elected mayor in 2000, explained the new police board wanted to take the city’s policing in a new direction. The move divided the city.

The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, as the FSIN was then known, applauded the change. Former mayor Don Atchison, then a city councillor, complained about the cost of replacing Scott and a lack of transparency.

Article content

Article content

Scott was noted for his quick ascension through the ranks, moving from sergeant to chief in four years. For the 23 years since Scott was dismissed, Saskatoon’s police force has been led by a chief hired from outside the city.

That changed last week when McBride was named Saskatoon’s new police chief. It took him considerably longer than Scott to rise to the position, a mere 27 years.

But the willingness to promote from within suggests at least symbolically that Saskatoon police are moving past the taint that starlight tours brought to the department.

Still, only 11 internal and external candidates applied, according to police board chair Shirley Greyeyes, down from 15 who applied when now-retired chief Troy Cooper was hired.

After Scott was let go in 2001, the board hired Russ Sabo, a 27-year veteran of the Calgary police force, to replace him. Sabo made the relationship between police and the “Native” community, as it was then known, a priority. First Nations and Metis Elders blessed his swearing-in ceremony.

Conversely, Scott wrote to the StarPhoenix in 2010 to blame those who froze to death, including Neil Stonechild in 1990, for living a “high-risk lifestyle.” He blasted a “frenzied media” for casting suspicion on police.

Article content

Sabo’s contract was not renewed in 2006 by a police board chaired by Atchison after he became mayor. The move was marked by the same lack of transparency Atchison had criticized after Scott’s departure.

Regina’s deputy chief, Clive Weighill, replaced Sabo and served for 11 distinguished years before Cooper, a Metis and the former police chief in Prince Albert, was hired. Cooper announced that he was retiring mid-contract after he suffered a heart attack a year ago.

McBride, currently a deputy chief, begins a five-year contract next week.

While starlight tours are now part of history, the relationship between police and the Indigenous community will always play a big role in Saskatoon.

To put it mildly, McBride inherits a job with challenges. Saskatoon remains on track to set a new high mark for homicides in one year, with nine so far.

The rise in homelessness is placing greater pressure on police, who are left to deal with issues that are not being addressed sufficiently.

And there’s also a city council election in November, with a new mayor assured, since Charlie Clark is bowing out after two terms.

Thanks to his predecessors and others, McBride’s tasks will not include restoring the force’s integrity.

Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

ptank@postmedia.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatoon news, so make sure to bookmark TheStarPhoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content