Darryl Burns speaking to reporters in Melfort on Apr. 28, 2023 after attending the RCMP's presentation of the timeline of events on Sept. 4, 2022 (Libby Giesbrecht / 650 CKOM)

By Libby Giesbrecht

Brother of James Smith Cree Nation victim ‘doing as well as I can be’

Apr 28, 2023 | 9:03 AM

The brother of one of the victims of the mass murder on James Smith Cree Nation in September is still trying to make sense of it all.

“I’m doing as well as I can be, I guess,” Darryl Burns, the brother of Lydia Burns, told reporters in Melfort on Thursday after attending the RCMP’s presentation of the timeline of events on Sept. 4.

Myles Sanderson killed 11 people — 10 on the James Smith Cree Nation and one in the nearby community of Weldon — and injured 17 others during the rampage on the Labour Day long weekend.

Caught by police near Rosthern on Sept. 7, Sanderson went into what police called “medical distress” and was later pronounced dead at a Saskatoon hospital.

Darryl Burns said something he never fully understood was the part of the attack timeline that suggested Sanderson killed Gregory Burns, left to kill and attack more victims, and then returned to kill Lydia.

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“That’s a lot of time between,” Darryl said.

However, though Burns did have a good idea of the timeline already, he said hearing about the “chaos,” “confusion,” and “terror” of that morning makes it more logical to him.

“How could anyone know? How could anyone know where he was or where he was going to go or what he was going to do?” Burns asked.

He knows many questions his community has will probably never be answered.

“I want her death to have some sort of a teaching to it, not only for our family, but (for) all the Indigenous communities across Canada,” he said.

Burns hopes the entire tragedy leads to change in Canada and gives a glimpse into the lasting effects of trauma on Indigenous people and their communities and culture.

He remains proud of his sister in her final hours.

“My sister, her behaviour that day doesn’t surprise me at all, because that’s who she was,” Burns said, calling her a very strong woman who respected others.

However, with more answers and information still to come out in the upcoming public inquest, Burns shared concerns.

“I guess I’m a little bit afraid of that day,” he said.

He said he hopes members of his community are in a place where they’re ready to hear it, or else he fears more information could divide their community more.

Inquest information

Shortly after the RCMP officials finished their presentation of the preliminary timeline, Saskatchewan’s chief coroner, Clive Weighill, confirmed the inquest will take place Jan. 15 in Melfort.

“We have two weeks set aside for the initial part of the inquest,” Weighill told reporters. “(I’m) hoping we can do it in two weeks, but we do have an additional week booked just in case we go into a third week.”

According to Weighill, the inquest will be hearing from a wide range of people who were closely connected personally to the situation.

“We’ll be calling witnesses (for) testimony from the Parole Board of Canada, from Corrections, the RCMP, from our forensic pathologists that do the exams and any other witnesses counsel deems appropriate for the inquest,” he explained.

In the months leading up to the inquest, the coroner’s office will be meeting with family members to prepare them for the inquest. Officials will try to give them as much information as possible without interfering with the integrity of the inquest.

Weighill believes all the information will be in place for that Jan. 15 date.

A jury will listen to the speakers and their job will be to help create recommendations to prevent something like this from happening again.

“The purpose of the inquest is to advise the public of the circumstance of the events and come up with some recommendations that will hopefully (prevent) this from happening in the future,” he added. “The jury will hear the evidence from everything that comes forth and make some recommendations towards the future.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Shane Clausing