Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
14
Inquiry?
The call for a national inquiry into missing
the responsibility of the police who have jurisdiction and the community
where the victim is from. This is the simple truth in Canada of criminal
acts and their investigations. Short of creating a national task force to
do these investigations, this is how they will be done for the foreseeable
future. Even if a national task force were formed, it would be years before
it was effective, as every case would have to be revisited, and by the time
the mechanics were figured out, much ground would be lost. Calling an
inquiry would buy time for everyone who should be taking a lead and
persons case being investigated. The leads and solvability grow colder
every day that we just talk.
Ernie Louttit
doesnt change the fact that they were the victim of a violent act. In many
cases of other pre-murder or assault behaviour, the only risk factor was
being an Indigenous woman.
The women and girls are not numbers to bolster each groups
argument for or against an inquiry. They are people with families who
deserve answers to where they are or how they came to be where they
were found. Case by case, investigation by investigation is the only way
this will truly get done. The strength of each investigation depends on
any number of things: the training and skill of the assigned investigators,
the co-operation of the community, and the evidence available. These
will, in the end, provide the only real answers.
investigations that fall short of the mark. There will be suspects who
maintain their silence and who dont co-operate.
known since I started with the Saskatoon police. She was involved in
the solvent-sniffing crowd when I first met her, but she turned it around
on her own. She was a troubled kid with a great attitude and a big
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smile. Her promise was always that she would do better. On the phone,
she was clearly upset and told me that two men had invited her to an
apartment. Once they had her there, they had used markers to paint on
her breasts. She knew one of the men by name. The second man terrified
her, and she was so agitated she would not even begin to describe him.
The complainant was a good kid making bad choices, but I believed her.
I knew the man she named, and after getting a statement, I went to his
cunt. I was unable to get the second suspect identified, but I did not give
it much thought because there was so much going on at the time.
court notice. My complainant had gone missing, but no one ever told me.
It was not until the bodies of three women and a teenager were found on
a golf course outside of Saskatoon that I found out where this girl was.
My sergeant told me the names of the victims and asked if I knew them.
I told him I did, and I cannot describe the sadness I felt and still feel. She
had been murdered by a serial killer, John Crawford. The man I charged
was his buddy. If I had been more persistent with the girl, I suspect
the second man who had sexually interfered with her would have been
identified as Crawford. It will always be one of those situations where
you will never know what could have happened. It was a relatively minor
sexual assault charge, but it could have been enough to stop Crawford
from murdering those other women.
better investigations. It also may divide us even further on racial lines and
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Ernie Louttit
Whatever the motive, whatever the crime, racist sexual predators, pimps,
trial and inquiry cost over one hundred million dollars, and no one
seemed satisfied with the results. A national inquiry would easily cost
ten times that, and it would require witnesses to come to it or it would
have to go to them. Money should not be the determining factor, but it is
them in a clear direction. Action, real and visible, is what will end the
disproportionate victimization of Indigenous women. Case by difficult
The Stonechild inquiry actually was the catalyst for many positive changes
in Saskatchewan between the First Nations and police services. Though
where it was. It was one case, and the inquiry cost twenty million dollars.
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