RCMP team was ‘between contracts’ and unable to immediately respond to JSCN attacks

A specialized RCMP team that handles high-risk situations wasn’t able to immediately respond to a mass stabbing in Saskatchewan because their contract was being negotiated at the time.

According to The Canadian Press, the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team Special Activities Group was offered to help out in the aftermath of Myles Sanderson’s mass stabbing attack on the James Smith Cree Nation and nearby Weldon last September.

That attack ultimately left 11 people dead and 18 others injured. Hundreds of police officers descended on Saskatchewan to join the manhunt for Sanderson, who went into “medical distress” and died in police custody three days after the initial attacks.

The Canadian Press said an internal email from Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore, commanding officer of the Saskatchewan RCMP, explained that the special team was not available to immediately help in Saskatchewan because the team was “in between contracts.”

The RCMP told The Canadian Press that the team was eventually deployed to help, but didn’t say when the group ultimately arrived in Saskatchewan.

Public inquiries into the mass killings are tentatively set to begin in January, but may be pushed back further if the RCMP’s investigation is not complete by that time.

–With files from The Canadian Press.

The gravesite for a stabbing victim on the James Smith Cree Nation. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW)