Cynthia Louise Sanderson
Cynthia Louise Sanderson
Cynthia Louise Sanderson, a 24 year-old Cree mother of two children, lived in the small town of Shellbrook, near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. She was the youngest of three children. She had her own house and worked part-time jobs but, according to her sister Linda Pechawis “she just got tired of struggling with money” and realized she needed an education to get fulltime employment. In 2002, she was accepted into the Universal Career College, a post-secondary training institution in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She moved in with her sister, bringing her four year-old daughter and leaving her seven year-old son in her mother’s care since he was still in school.
Cynthia Sanderson started at Universal Career College in April 2002 with the goal of becoming a legal assistant. By June, her attendance was steadily declining. Finally, at the end of the month she talked to her instructor about her alcohol abuse. She admitted herself to a Saskatoon detox centre in July and then a rehabilitation centre at Ahtahkakoop First Nation in August. On August 25th she went to stay with her mother for a week.
On the evening of August 30, 2002, Cynthia Sanderson went out with a friend and her cousin in Prince Albert, 134 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Around 1 a.m. they got into a dispute with a White man, Anthony Barr, outside a bar. Accounts of what happened next vary. According to Sanderson’s friends, Barr called out a racist insult. The trio swore back and kept walking. The man followed them in a truck. As Barr drove slowly beside them, they argued and exchanged racial slurs. Barr challenged the two men to a fight. He stopped the truck and got out, but when the two men moved toward him, Barr jumped back into his truck and drove ahead a short distance. After this happened a second time, Cynthia Sanderson apparently ran up to the driver’s side of the truck. This time he didn’t pull away.
One of her friends testified that he heard Barr call her something like “Indian whore.” Another said Barr propositioned her. Barr then grabbed Cynthia Sanderson by her jacket and drove away, dragging her alongside the truck for up to fifteen feet. When she lost her balance, Barr let go, ran over her and sped away. Cynthia Sanderson was taken to hospital where she died as a result of her injuries shortly after 4 a.m.
When Barr returned to the bar later that night, a witness pointed him out to police and he was arrested. After Cynthia Sanderson’s death, Barr was charged with criminal negligence causing death and leaving the scene of a crime. The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN), an Indigenous advocacy organization, called on the Crown prosecutor to charge Barr with a “hate crime.” The prosecutor decided this case did not meet the criteria, but did elevate the charge to manslaughter. At trial, the judge acquitted Barr of the manslaughter charge and convicted him of dangerous driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of a crime. Barr was sentenced to three years in prison.
Cynthia Sanderson’s sister Linda Pechawis says that no one at the hospital tried to contact Sanderson’s family while she was still alive. Cynthia Sanderson had contact information for her mother and sister in her day-planner, which she used as a purse. “She didn’t have to die alone and scared,” stated Pechawis. Cynthia Sanderson’s two friends traveled to Shellbrook to contact her mother and take her to the hospital in Prince Albert but they were too late. Prince Albert police informed Amnesty International that a communications “screw up” had occurred between them and the Shellbrook RCMP. The Prince Albert police had contacted the RCMP, who were supposed to inform Sanderson’s mother that her daughter had passed away, but she was not told this news. When she arrived at the hospital, she was expecting to find her daughter alive. A police investigator broke the bad news to her.
Linda Pechawis has filed a complaint against the Prince Albert Police Service through the Special Investigations Unit of the FSIN. She says that police officers did later apologize to her for mistakes the force made in the handling of the investigation. While she appreciated their candour, she questioned whether racist attitudes influenced not only the crime but also the police response. “They knew that they didn’t do their job,” Linda Pechawis told Amnesty International. “Sometimes I really think that her being Native could’ve been a reason. I hate to say that, but P.A. [Prince Albert], they say, is a pretty bad place for racism.”
The Prince Albert Police Service told Amnesty International that there were “never any racist attitudes shown by police in any component of the investigation” and that the first two officers at the scene were “visible members of the First Nation community.” An officer with the force, who clearly is concerned that Indigenous women do face high levels of violence, which he termed “cold, racist and sexist” and added that he hopes there will be “positive changes for a seriously at-risk group.”[1]
[1] Letter to Amnesty International from Prince Albert Police Service, August 30, 2004.
Updated: 29 September 2009