Father and son pulled over by Sask. RCMP after stopping on rural road for bathroom break

A Saskatchewan First Nations man says he feels he and hisson were racially profiled whenthey ended up beingdetained by RCMPon suspicion of breaking and enteringbecause they stoppedon a ruralroad for a bathroom break.

"It's a very different landscape now for Indigenous peoplein rural areas," said SeraineSunkawaste, who is Dakota/Cree.

"I want everyone to feelsafe. I wasjust scared for my son."

Sunkawasteand his 17-year-old sonAlexi, who has Down syndrome,were driving to Regina July 1 after a trip to their home community of White Bear First Nation.

He said halfway to their destination, Alexi said he need to use the washroom. Sunkawaste was hesitant to stop at first, thinking about the death of Colten Boushie.

Boushie, 22, was shot in the head after he and group of other young people from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation drove onto Gerald Stanley's farm near Biggar, Sask., in August 2016.Stanley was acquitted in February in the death.

But with his son's urgency to use the washroom, he said he had to stop, and said this was something the pair had done many times before.

Concerned for his son's safety on the shoulder of Highway 33,Sunkawastepulled onto an adjacent grid road and stopped.

He said he relieved himself near the rear of his car whileAlexi went further away from the road, into the ditch, for privacy.

I was stressing to him, 'You cannot go on farm property.- SeraineSunkawaste, Father

"He did his duties and was standing about 15feet away from this quonset[a kind of steel barn],in the ditch," said Sunkawaste.

He said he yelled out to his son to come backandAlexi hurried back to the car.

"I was stressing to him 'You cannot go on farm property.'"

The two then got back into their vehicle and got back on to the highway.

Pulled over and handcuffed

Sunkawastesaid a truck from the farm left the property at the same time he and his son were merging back on to thehighway. Hesaid henoticed they were going in the same direction.

"I didn't think anything of it, they weren't tailgating me or anything," he said.

"I actuallylaughingly told Lexi they were probably going to Regina, too."

But within a few minutes, anRCMP patrol car pulled themover.

He saidthe RCMP officer approached the vehicle andasked for his licence and registration. Then the officertoldhim he would need to exit the vehicle, and that he was being detained for suspicion of a break and enter.

"I was like, 'What?Break and enter?" said Sunkawaste.

"I was trying to make sense of what is going on."

Alexiattempted to get out of the vehicle when the RCMPofficer was handcuffing Sunkawaste.

Concerned that his son was frightened, Sunkawastesaidhe asked that Alexi be allowed to stay with him, explaining that hewas special needs. Father and sonwere both placed in the back of the police cruiser.

Sunkawastesaid a secondRCMPcruiser arrived within minutes.

He kept asking questions about what was going on and the officer told him his vehicle and his sonmatched the description given by a propertyowner about a break and enter.

Property owner called police

Cpl. Rob King, media relations officer forFDivision,said the Fillmore RCMPdetachment received acall at about 6 p.m. July 1 about a possible break and enter on a farm in the area.

The complainant stated she witnessed someone running from a building on her property to a car parked onthe roadat the end of her driveway.

King saida member of the Fillmore RCMPwho wasin the area caught up with the vehicle and detained the driver.

The farm owner then contactedthe detachment and informed them there was no break-in and nothing was missing from her property.

King said for an officer to detain a suspect,therehas to be reasonable grounds. He said the fact that a suspectwas witnessed running from aproperty by the owner gave RCMP reasonable grounds to stop the vehicle.

"As the investigation continued on it was determined that no offence had taken place, and that the vehicle was stopped [at the farm]for a legitimate reason," saidKing.

RCMP said the incident lasted about half an hour from when the driver was placed in the a cruiser to him being released. Nocharges were laid.

Plans to file complaint

Sunkawastesaid he plans to submit acomplaint to the special investigations unit of theFederation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. The unit helpspeople making complaints against police in Saskatchewan.

He said the incident made him feelinsecure, violated and embarrassed. He saidhe wonders ifthe same approach would have been taken if it had beensomeone other than an Indigenous person.

"We need to build stable relations between non-Indigenous people and Indigenous people," he said.

"This time of year a lot of Indigenous people are travelling because it's powwow season. I just want people to know that we need to come to some sort of understanding going into the future."