Anna's Essay: The Starlight Tours

The Starlight Tours is a practice of police taking Indigenous people and dropping

them off at the edge of the city in the middle of a winter night. Have you ever heard of it? If not, do not worry, most Canadians do not know about it. This practice is extremely unconstitutional and criminal. It is our citizen’s job to be aware of this and stand for what is right and wrong.

The Saskatoon freezing deaths, or commonly called The Starlight Tours, were a series of deaths of Indigenous Canadians in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that took place in the 2000s. Their deaths were allegedly caused by members of the Saskatoon Police Service who would arrest Indigenous people, usually men, for alleged drunkenness and/or disorderly behaviour, sometimes without proof or justification. After arrest they would then drive them to the outskirts of the city at night in temperatures as low as -30 degrees where they would take their shoes and clothing, abandon them, leaving them to walk back alone. The practice was known as taking Indigeno