Also known as the Saskatoon freezing deaths, the Saskatoon Police Service is directly responsible for the deaths of three First Nations men, Rodney Naistus, Lawrence Wegner, and Neil Stonechild. Rodney and Lawrence died in 2000 while Neil died in 1990.
These men, who were allegedly intoxicated, were picked up by the Saskatoon Police in the winter, stripped of warm clothes, driven to the outskirts of town, and forced to make their own way home, in some cases in deep snow.
How the police couldn’t see what the outcome of these actions would be is laughable. The police stopped just short of pouring water on these poor men before they let them walk home. The officers responsible for the deaths of these 3 men have never been charged.
The defense is that these were isolated cases not representing the police as a whole. This is unfortunately not true. A study was done by the University of Winnipeg and discovered at least 76 people were dumped on a “starlight tour” by the Winnipeg Police.