(Submitted photo/ Chase Sinclair)

By Nigel Maxwell

Waiting for answers

Prince Albert family participates in research project on racialized policing

Jul 20, 2024 | 6:59 AM

Investigating experiences of “over-protection” or “unde-protection” by police, a team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan have spent the past two days working with a family in Prince Albert, who trying to come to terms with the loss of their own loved one.

In early April, 2023, Boden Umpherville was arrested by Prince Albert police. During the interaction with officers, he was struck with a baton and tazed multiple times and would pass away in hospital three weeks later.

Dr Julie Kaye, a professor of sociology, is the lead researcher and explained for the past few years they’ve travelled to a number of communities, meeting with different families affected by missing or murdered loved ones or what she termed as racialized policing.

“This is a family where some of that intersects where we see the death of a young indigenous man and in relation to the police,” she said.

The art based workshops lasted three hours. (Submitted/ Chase Sinclair)

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Over the course of the two days, a number of works shops were held, with the goal of simply providing the family, community members and even local youth a safe space to talk about policing and their own personal experiences. Kaye explained some of the challenges identified in their research have to do with street checks and carding.

The information gathered will help contribute to future literature on community perceptions of policing and justice.

“We’ve been in a context of continuing to address this ongoing settler/ colonial environment that we live in so we need to have some of these difficult conversations with our institutions around what is the relationship with indigenous people within the province and how are the systems needing to transform,” Kaye explained.

This week’s workshops were funded by the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Explore Grant.

The t-shirts that were made will be worn during a special awareness walk on Saturday.(Submitted/ Chase Sinclair)

The incident from last year and the circumstances that led to Umpherville’s death remain part of an active investigation by the Saskatchewan Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT). Acknowledging a missing piece to the conversation, Kaye explained their work this week is not just about what happened to one specific family but the context of the family experience is equally important

And with respect to their conversations with youth, she said they come with a wealth o knowledge around what they’ve experienced or would like to experience from police. As an educational tool, they were all provided with know your right cards

“But sometimes even knowing your rights, doesn’t essentially matter because just because you know what your rights are doesn’t mean you can actually enact them within a situation,” Kaye said.

Chase Sinclair is Boden’s older brother and for the past year has been advocating for change. He explained it has taken a toll on his own mental health.

“You’ve got to stay in that incident for a year,” he said. “We can’t heal until we get some sort of closure.”

(Submitted/ Chase Sinclair)

With respect to this week’s workshops, Sinclair explained it was his intention to get the community involved in the conversation.

“Do we accept this or do we not,” he said, noting that while there was no representation from police at their workshops, he had invited them.

The imagery on the posters and banners shows a blue hand, which Sinclair explained represents men who are missing by way of over representation in the jail or violence at the hands of police.

Destiny Sasakamoose is Boden’s younger sister and she re-iterated this is not just about Boden, but all people who have faced adversity in the criminal justice system.

“Everyone deserves a voice, everyone deserves justice,” she said.

With respect to her own search for answers and healing journey, Sasakamoose explained it’s a waiting game.

“And I’m not sure what the process are for the steps going forward but we are still waiting and we were told a certain time frame and it has exceeded that, so that is very frustrating for all of us,” she said.

This week’s wors and discussions are concluding on Saturday with a special awareness walk. It is scheduled to start at 11:30a.m. and people are encouraged to gather at the Gateway Mall’s south parking lot.

When paNOW reached out this week to police, Chief Patrick Nogier confirmed he had not heard any update with respect to the SIRT investigation.

As they have in the past, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, could not confirm an exact date for the report’s release, but noted it will be published within 90 days of the conclusion of the investigation.

nigel.maxwell@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @nigelmaxwell