Suspect in deadly Canada stabbings has long criminal record
JAMES SMITH CREE NATION, Saskatchewan (AP) — As a Canadian Indigenous community comes to grips with a deadly stabbing rampage by two of its own, many blamed rampant drug and alcohol use that they linked to government failures — and others asked why the chief suspect had been recently freed from prison despite a long history of violence.
Myles Sanderson, has 59 criminal convictions, according to parole documents. He'd been serving a sentence of four years and four months on charges that included assault with a weapon, assault on a peace officer and robbery when he was released.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he’s been told by the parole board there will be an investigation into its assessment of Myles Sanderson, who remained a fugitive and the subject of a large-scale manhunt on Wednesday.
“I want the know the reasons behind the decision" to release him, he said. “I'm extremely concerned with what occurred here.”
Many of his past crimes happened when he was intoxicated, and he told parole officials substance use made him out of his mind. He had been sought for a parole violation since May.
“The drug problem and the alcohol problem on these reserves is way out of hand," said Ivor Wayne Burns, whose sister was killed in the weekend attacks. “We have dead people and we asked before for something to be done.”
Sanderson, 32, and his brother Damien, are accused of killing 10 people and wounding 18 others in the attacks that spread across the rural reserve and into the nearby town of Weldon, Saskatchewan. Damien’s body was found Monday near the attacks, and police were investigating whether his brother killed him.
The reserve, population of about 1,900, gets its name from a chief who signed an agreement over lands with the Canadian Crown and other tribes in...