72. The Starlight Tours

For decades, Indigenous communities in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan whispered about a police practice called a "starlight tour" — officers detaining First Nations men and abandoning them on the frozen outskirts of the city in sub-zero temperatures. In this episode, we trace the story from the 1990 death of seventeen-year-old Neil Stonechild, found frozen with handcuff marks on his wrists, to the harrowing winter of 2000, when two more frozen bodies were discovered near the same power station where survivor Darrell Night had barely escaped with his life days earlier. Night's courage in coming forward shattered decades of denial, triggered a landmark public inquiry, and forced a nation to confront a truth it had long refused to hear. Patreon Sources: CBC News. "RCMP Investigate Two Freezing Deaths." CBC, 16 Feb. 2000. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rcmp-investigate-two-freezing-deaths-1.227672 CBC News. "Sask. Man at Centre of Historic ‘Starlight Tours’ Police Misconduct Case Has Died." CBC, 23 Apr. 2023. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/darrell-night-died-starlight-tour-1.6818232 CBC News. "Saskatoon Police Removed ‘Starlight Tours’ Section from Wikipedia, Student Says." CBC, 31 Mar. 2016. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-police-starlight-tours-wikipedia-delete-1.3512586 Commission of Inquiry into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild. "Background Information." Government of Saskatchewan. https://www.stonechildinquiry.ca/backgrounder.shtml Commission of Inquiry into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild. Government of Saskatchewan, Oct. 2004. http://www.publications.gov.sk.ca/freelaw/Publications_Centre/Justice/Stonechild/Stonechild-FinalReport.pdf Flyn, Corinne L. "Freezing Deaths: The Starlight Tours." Gladue Rights Research Database, University of Saskatchewan. https://gladue.usask.ca/node/2860 Globe and Mail. "RCMP Add 1990 Death to Saskatoon Police Probe." The Globe and Mail, 24 Feb. 2000. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/rcmp-add-1990-death-to-saskatoon-police-probe/article1037160/ Historical Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP-3). "Starlight Tour." University of British Columbia. https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/entries/starlight%20tour Hubbard, Tasha, dir. Two Worlds Colliding. National Film Board of Canada, 2004. Hutchinson, Brian. "Frozen Ghosts: Saturday Night’s Starlight Tour." Saturday Night Magazine, 19 Aug. 2000. Archived at https://injusticebusters.org/index.htm/frozenghosts.htm InjusticeBusters. "Dustyhorn: Native Dies After Police ‘Drive Him Home.’" https://injusticebusters.org/index.htm/Dustyhorn.htm InjusticeBusters. "Lawrence Wegner Death: Questions Remain." https://injusticebusters.org/index.htm/Wegner.htm InjusticeBusters. "Darrell Night Story: Washington Post." https://injusticebusters.org/2003/Night.htm Chicken, Priscilla. "Starlight Tours Show Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canadian Policing." The Manitoban, Mar. 2024. https://themanitoban.com/2024/03/starlight-tours-show-anti-indigenous-racism-in-canadian-policing/46968/ Maclean’s. "New Light on Saskatoon’s ‘Starlight Tours.’" Maclean’s, 8 Apr. 2016. https://macleans.ca/news/canada/new-light-on-saskatoons-starlight-tours/ Palmater, Pamela. "Remembering Neil Stonechild and Exposing Systemic Racism in Policing." The Conversation, 28 Aug. 2020. https://theconversation.com/remembering-neil-stonechild-and-exposing-systemic-racism-in-policing-128436 Reber, Susanne, and Robert Renaud. Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild. Random House Canada, 2005. Sillito, David. "Starlight Tours Whistle Blower Darrell Night Passes Away." APTN National News, 26 Apr. 2023. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/starlight-tours-whistle-blower-darrell-night-passes-away/ Spheres of Influence. "Canada’s Best-Kept Secret: Starlight Tours." Apr. 2025. https://spheresofinfluence.ca/canadas-best-kept-secret-starlight-tours/ University of Saskatchewan, Indigenous Saskatchewan Encyclopedia. "Stonechild, Neil." https://teaching.usask.ca/indigenoussk/import/stonechild_neil.php University of Regina, Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. "Stonechild, Neil." https://www.esask.uregina.ca/entry/stonechild_neil.html Wikipedia. "Neil Stonechild." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Stonechild Wikipedia. "Saskatoon Freezing Deaths." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_freezing_deaths