Inquiry report ignores key issues

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Family members of an Indian trapper shot dead three years ago by a white supremacist say justice officials have not addressed concerns over the role racism played in the killing.

Saskatchewan Justice Minister Robert Mitchell released the 75-page inquiry report into the shooting death of Leo LaChance Nov. 22. The Cree trapper was killed in January 1991 by Carney Nerland, the Saskatchewan leader of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian-Aryan Nations.

David LaChance, brother of Leo LaChance, told journalists he accepted the $400,000 inquiry's report but there are still many unanswered questions.

"I would feel a lot better today if I knew what happened inside that building and we'll never know that."

One issue the inquiry failed to address was the identity of the RCMP informant, and whether Nerland received special treatment because he was that informant. The Prince Alberta Tribal Council and the LaChance family named Nerlands as the RCMP informer on the Aryan Nations back in November 1992.

But a Saskatchewan Court of Appeals ruling that the name of the informer had to be kept secret was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada that month. The tribal council believed the truth should be revealed so the commission could do its job properly.

Commissioners Ted Hughes, Delia Opekokew and Peter MacKinnon also concluded police and prosecutors should have investigated the racist aspects of the killing much more thoroughly.

More information about the racist aspect might also have led to a longer sentence, the report stated. Nerland is currently serving a four year term for manslaughter. He is due for release on Dec. 15.

Members of the LaChance family and the tribal council both believe Nerland should have been charged with murder. But the commissioners said prosecutors were correct in bringing a manslaughter charge two days after the shooting.

It was necessary to lay the charge quickly and prevent Nerland from fleeing the country, the commission concluded.

But while there was insufficient proof for a murder charge at the time, police and prosecutors erred by not thoroughly investigating the racist undertones in the trial, the report read.

The commissioners were also critical of the Prince Albert City Police for not interpreting the law more broadly when licensing Nerland's Northern Gun and Pawn Shop. Nerland might have been denied a license if his activities with the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations had been considered.

Licenses cannot be issued to anyone with a history of threats or violence. Nerland supplied weapons for KKK gatherings and had once suggested a shotgun as "birth control" for Natives.

In releasing the report, Mitchell said the criminal justice system does not serve the Aboriginal people. The commissioners recommend that the Prince Albert police have a Cree-speaking member on duty at all times. There now is only one Cree-speaking officer and several studying the language.

The commissioners also concluded that prosecutors and police should have more cultural sensitivity and cross-cultural training.

The justice minister has already called for a two-day conference in January to provide more cross-cultural training for prosecutors.

Tribal Council Chief Alphonse Bird told a news conference Nov. 22 the tribal council had only 48 hours and was not ready yet to comment.