Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was visiting the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan on Nov. 28, where he paid his respects to the victims of the September tragedy and announced new funding to improve healthcare in the community.
“I appreciate you letting me be here with you today, letting me grieve alongside you and continue to support in the very difficult healing process you’re all going through,” Trudeau said in a press conference.
The prime minister announced $40 million would be spent over six years to build a new wellness centre for the community, along with $2.5 million over five years to improve access to holistic treatment and healing services.
He also said there would be a $20 million top-up over four years for the Pathways to Safe Indigenous Communities Initiative which is a national program seeking to improve community safety without resorting to law enforcement.
“More access to mental health and addictions care will help create a safer and healthier community for everyone,” Trudeau said.
The community was shaken by a stabbing rampage last September that left 12 people dead including the suspect.
Trudeau said he heard directly from grieving families about the fact that the suspect Myles Sanderson had been released by the parole board, which did not consider him a risk to society. He was also unlawfully at large by the time of the tragedy.
“Obviously, a parole board makes its decisions independently, but making sure that people are accessing the proper kinds of mental health supports and addictions treatments while they’re incarcerated is a piece of it,” he said, without wading further into the failure.
Trudeau also decried the security of First Nations communities having to rely on “colonial structures” when it comes to policing.
He did not provide a timeline for when his government would introduce legislation to make First Nations policing an essential service, although he said the issue is pressing.
“Getting First Nations policing legislation right at the federal level is going to take the time it takes to get it right,” he said.
James Smith Chief Wally Burns has been lobbying the federal government to have its own police force.
It was the RCMP which apprehended the suspect Sanderson after a man-hunt in September.
Sanderson went into medical distress shortly after being taken into custody and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
