Court dismisses appeal of Stonechild findings

Saskatchewan's highest court has dismissed an application to quash key findings made by an inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild.

Thursday's appeal court decision was the latest development in thecase of Stonechild, the aboriginal teenager found frozen to death in a Saskatoon field 18 years ago.

A publicinquiry into his death found in 2004 thatthe 17-year-old had beenin the custody of two officers on Nov. 24, 1990, the night he was last seen alive.

Const. Brad Senger and Const. Larry Hartwig were fired when the final report was released. Last fall, they and the Saskatoon Police Association applied to the Court of Appeal to have the inquiry's findings set aside.

Among the findings was that marks found on Stonechild's wrists were caused by handcuffs. They argued thatinquirycommissioner David Wright didn't have the jurisdiction to drawhis conclusions.

They alsoargued the report convicted them, though they've never been charged, and that the findings weren't supported by the evidence.

The court rejected all of their arguments. It ruled that Wright did act within the mandate of the inquiry and that his findings in fact were not unreasonable and as a result could not be overturned.

"The Commissioner acted both within the scope of his terms of reference and in compliance with the constitutional restrictions applicable to the work of public inquiries," Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Justice Bob Richards wrote inthe 47-page decision released Thursdayon behalf of the three-judge panel that also included justices John Klebuc and Darla Hunter.

"His findings of fact were not unreasonable. He did not make, and could not make, any determination of civil or criminal liability."

The Stonechild inquiry in 2003 and 2004 cast a sometimes harsh light on relations between the Saskatoon police and the city's aboriginal community. No one was ever charged in connection with Stonechild's death.

The police service later apologized to Stonechild's family for the way the investigation was conducted.

Lawyers for Hartwig and Senger said they will immediatelylaunch anappeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.