The demolition occurred on Tuesday. (Submitted photo/Adrian Lee)

By Derek Cornet

band housing

Sucker River family devastated following house demolition

Oct 27, 2023 | 5:00 PM

A family in Sucker River is devastated following the unexpected demolition of their family home.

That’s according to brothers Adrian and Ben Lee, who told larongeNOW their family has been left asking questions following the destruction of a long-time residence in the community on Tuesday.

“When the house got demolished, nobody in the family knew this was going to happen. We were all kind of in shock because we thought it was going to be left there and we would be notified in some way that this was going to happen,” Adrian said, adding it was when he returned home from classes that day he learned what had happened.

“My mom and my sister were just in shock and crying. I was asking ‘what the heck happened?’ It just got torn down during the day. It was a surprise for all of us.”

The house didn’t have electricity at the time and was mainly being used for storage. It was boarded up for protection, but Adrian noted a homeless member of the family would stay there and it was obvious someone was living there.

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He mentioned as the family is already living in overcrowded conditions, they had no other solution but to use the house as a place to store much of their possessions.

The house had been in the family for decades. (Submitted photo/Adrian Lee)

After the demolition, a band employee moved some of the rubble so the family could recover some of their belongings. (Submitted photo/Adrian Lee)

“We have been dealing with some loses of our own for quite a while here and just things sort of got put aside,” Adrian said.

Prior to the demolition, the brothers said officials with Lac La Ronge Indian Band attempted to get Ben to sign the house over, but he refused.

“I told her several times, flat out, I will not sign the house back over to the band because it has all my possessions in it and it still has all my furniture and what not in it and we were using it as storage,” Ben said.

“I really want to know how it was torn down without any consent … or no warning. All of our stuff was in there. It’s gone now.”

Following the demolition, the brothers learned from the band the demolition went forward because a policy states a unit without power for more than 30 days is considered abandoned. Ben was unable to have electricity restored to the unit because of outstanding debts and they claimed it could not be restored under someone else’s name.

“This is a house that has memories. This is a piece of our family’s history,” Adrian said. “Our family has always lived in that little rough area there and it’s our tie to the community, in my mind, and that’s what breaks my heart.”

larongeNOW reached out to the Lac La Ronge Indian Band for comment, but did not receive a response by publishing.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com