Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild (Susanne Reber, Robert Renaud)
More languages
More actions
Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild | |
|---|---|
| Author | Susanne Reber, Robert Renaud |
| Publisher | Random House Canada |
| First published | 2019 |
| Type | Book |
| https://annas-archive.org/md5/7c12c19769161f202ff5facb91222ca0 | |
About
Starlight Tour is an investigative exposé on the Saskatoon Police Service's "starlight tours"—racist practice of driving intoxicated Indigenous men to remote outskirts in sub-zero winters, abandoning them to freeze to death—centering on 16-year-old Cree youth Neil Stonechild's 1990 killing.
Melanson, a former Saskatoon journalist, reconstructs Stonechild's final hours using RCMP files, witness statements, and the 2003 Stonechild Inquiry (which he covered). Arrested November 24, 1990, for public intoxication, Stonechild was last seen handcuffed in a police cruiser near a power plant; his frozen body was found 4 km away with ligature marks and boot prints, yet ruled "accidental exposure." The book exposes cover-up: missing cruiser logs, destroyed evidence, and perjured testimony from officers like Larry Bird and Bradley Senger.
Links Stonechild to prior unreported cases (1976: two Indigenous men abandoned) and post-2000 deaths (Rodney Naistus, Lawrence Wegner), confirmed by survivor Darrell Night's 2002 testimony of being dumped by Senger and another officer—leading to charges (dropped due to "memory issues"). Frames as settler-colonial violence: police as enforcers targeting Indigenous poverty/racism intersection in Prairie cities.
No convictions despite inquiry finding "serious flaws"; critiques Saskatoon PD's internal probes and provincial inaction. Ties to national issues like Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Girls (MMIWG). If you want to know more about starlight tours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlight_tours And a documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2rNR7nT4Rw&t=2s