Enclosed for your information is a copy of a newspaper article on
the plight of aboriginal people in Canada.
re-printed without permission from THE TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL,
Wednesday, July 03, 1991
NATIVES DEMAND CAMPBELL PROBE TRAPPER"S DEATH
Questions still surround slaying by Prince Albert white supremacist
by David Roberts
The Globe and Mail
PRINCE ALBERTA, Sask. -- Justice Minister Kim Campbell is being
denounced for failing to respond to requests for a federal inquiry
into the killing of an Indian man by a white supremacist neo-nazi.
"As long as there is no independent investigation, the situation in
Prince Albert between Indians and non-Indians is going to get
worse," A.J. Felix, Chief of the Prince Albert Tribal Council, said
in an interview.
Leo LaChance was shot to death last Jan. 28 as he left the Northern
Gun & Pawn Shop, owned by Carney Milton Nerland, the 25-year-old
leader of the Saskatchewan chapter of the white supremacist Church
of Jesus Christ Christian -- Aryan Nations.
Mr. LaChance, 48, a trapper from the Whitefish Indian reserve was
unarmed, apparently trying to pawn a rifle that was at home.
Mr. Nerland, a firearms expert, fired two shots from a 7.62 mm
assault rifle into the floor of the gun shop and then a third shot
through the door as Mr. LaChance was leaving.
The native man staggered from the scene and collapsed in the snow.
A passer-by found him cold and unconscious and asked Mr. Nerland
for emergency use of his telephone, but was refused.
The neo-Nazi later insisted that he did not know the weapon was
loaded and that the shooting was accidental. He pleaded guilty to
a charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to four years in prison
in April. The Crown did not appeal.
The sentencing judge said he could find no evidence that the
gunshop owner's racist beliefs played a factor in Mr. LaChance's
death.
But a number of unanswered questions have clouded the case,
especially the question about the extent of Mr. Nerland's
friendship with police officers and with federal and provincial
corrections workers. The incident has done little to ease tensions
between natives and non-natives in this community of 35,000.
Prince Albert is about 35 per cent native.
Two corrections workers were in the gun shop at the time of the
shooting. But they did not report the incident to police until
nearly 24 hours later, after consulting their lawyers. A former
jail guard offered to post bail for Mr. Nerland.
Police spoke to Mr. LaChance before he was flown to hospital in
Saskatoon. Before dying, he apparently told them he did not know
why he had been shot.
But Mr. Felix and other native leaders find this incredible. "If
it was an accident, why was Leo trying to get away?" Mr. Felix
asked. "I think there was one hell of an argument -- and he was
murdered."
Mr. Felix, Gerald Morin of the Indian-Metis Friendship Centre and
Prince Albert Mayor Gordon Kirkby all have written letters to Ms.
Campbell asking for an independent inquiry into the shooting.
Their request have not been acknowledged, Mr. Felix said. Owen
Lippert, a spokesman for Ms. Campbell, said the minister has
insufficient staff to respond to all of the many letters she
receives. As well, it is unclear Ms. Campbell has the
jurisdictional responsibility to respond to requests for such an
inquiry, Mr. Lippert said.
Mr. Felix said that, since the RCMP had peripheral involvement in
the shooting investigation and the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service monitors activities of groups such as the Aryan Nation,
CSIS would be the most logical agency to undertake an inquiry.
Failing even to acknowledge receipt of the letters demonstrates a
degree of arrogance on the part of non-native politicians, he said.
"Until this thing is settled I'm concerned my natives will have a
police-native war," Mr. Felix said.
The fact Mr. Nerland returned to the gun shop hours after the
shooting, ostensibly to retrieve business records, is suspicious,
Mr. Felix suggested. Some people in Prince Albert have publicly
wondered whether the records contained an Aryan Nations membership
list.
Mr. Felix said there is growing speculation the gun shop records
might contain what he described as a "Nazi hit list".
He noted there is at least one unsolved death of a native youth in
the city. The body was found last year in the North Saskatchewan
River, and Mr. Felix said lawyers are attempting to have it exhumed
after a suggestion by the youth's family that he may have been shot
and the circumstances covered up.
Former jail guard Roy McKnight, who offered to post bail for Mr.
Nerland, said he is convinced the shooting was a tragic accident.
"Nothing good came out of this," Mr. McKnight said. "Leo LaChance
lost his life and Carney Nerland ruined his."
--- FD 1.99c
* Origin: Lubicon News Station: Edmonton, Alberta Canada (89:701/432)
-- Terri Kelly via oneb.wimsey.bc.ca!onebdos Terri.Kelly@f432.n701.z89.imex.org