Man alleges threats by Winnipeg police

A 20-year-oldFirst Nationsman claims Winnipeg police officersdrove him to the outskirts of the city, dropped him offand threatened him with a stun gun.

The Winnipeg Police Service, however, says it hasnot received anyformal complaint about the allegedincident.SpokeswomanConst. Natalie Aitken said the service has only heard about itthrough the media reports.

Amember of the WPSwillbecontacting thefamily of the alleged victimto talk about their concerns, she said.

Joseph Maud,a band councillor at the Skownan First Nation, said his nephew Evan Maud is shaken up from the incident, which allegedly occurred Dec. 3.

The family as a whole is afraid to deal with the police directly, sotheyintend to meet with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs on Wednesday afternoon and request the AMCact as an intermediary, said Joseph Maud.

A complaint will then be filed with theLaw Enforcement Review Agency, a provincially mandated, independent investigative body that investigates non-criminal complaints about municipal police officers in Manitoba.

'My family is appalled and sickened by the barbaric tactics used by the City of Winnipeg police department.'Joseph Maud

According to Joseph Maud, Evanwas waiting for a transit bus near Main Street and Magnus Avenue when he was approached by anunmarked undercover vehicle, andwhat he believed to be a policeofficer told him to get inside.

"My nephew was driven to the outskirts of the city and forced to walk on the yellow (highway divider) line to determine if he was intoxicated," Maud wrote in a letter to AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans.

"My nephew told the officer to take him to the drunk tank. The officer took his winter jacket and told Evan to run. The officers followed close behind threatening to Taser him.

"All through this time, Evan was having a hard time to breathe, he was falling and stumbling. Finally, the cruiser leaves him to make his ownway back to the city."

The temperatureat the time was -28 C, said Maud, whois in Winnipeg this week to help his nephew.

His nephew managed to make his way home to his Elmwood neighbourhood residence.

"My family is appalled and sickened by the barbaric tactics used by the City of Winnipeg police department," Maud said.

Starlight tours

University of Manitoba professor Elizabeth Comack recently studied cases where aboriginal people claimed to have been subjected to so-called starlight tours, in which individualsare driven by police officers outside of town and abandoned on the side of the road.

She said she is not surprised by Maud's allegations.

"I'd like to say I'm surprised by it, but I'm not. If anything, my reaction is one of relief that Evan has had the courage to come forward," she said.

'I'd like to say I'm surprised by it, but I'm not. If anything, my reaction is one of relief that Evan has had the courage to come forward.' University of Manitoba professor Elizabeth Comack

Comack is confident police will be able to find out exactly what happened, as police cars are equipped with GPS systems.

Starlight tourswere thrust into the national spotlight in 2000 when a First Nations man in Saskatoon, Darrell Night, came forward to say he had been victimized in that way.

Two police officers with that city'spolice forcewere eventually found guilty of unlawful confinement and sentenced to eight months in jail.

The controversy renewed interest in the case of Neil Stonechild, a 17-year-old First Nations man found frozen to death in a remote field in Saskatoon in November 1990.

In 2003, the government of Saskatchewan called an inquiry into his death and in October 2004, the province released the report.

The inquirycould not conclusively say Stonechildwas subjected to a starlight tour, but suggested he might very well have been.

It did, however, offer a damning indictment of the Saskatoon police service, criticizing theinadequate investigation into Stonechild's death.

As well, thetwo officers who were found to have had Stonechild in their custody that evening were eventually fired.