SASKATOON — Eleanore Sunchild, the lawyer advising Kyla Frenchman and her family, is questioning the actions of Prince Albert Police Service officers who responded the night 13-month-old Tanner Brass died.
Sunchild spoke on behalf of a visibly distraught Kyla Frenchman at Friday morning’s press conference at the Saskatoon Inn & Conference Centre.
Sunchild, a member of the Thunderchild First Nation, as is Frenchman, maintained race was an issue when the officers responded to a domestic dispute in the early Feb. 10
Frenchman was taken into custody despite her pleas for police to check on her baby. Tanner was left with his father, Kaji Brass, and was found dead five hours later after police officers returned to the scene. The elder Brass was arrested and is charged with second-degree murder in Tanner’s death.
Sunchild said they will contest the accusation by Prince Albert police officers of Frenchman being drunk, that she was just concerned for the safety of baby Tanner and that she was panicking. She said Frenchman made the 9-1-1 call as she feared for their safety from Kaji.
“We want to go through the process and everything in the complaint to bring to light the discrimination that she [Frenchman] faced as an Indigenous woman,” Sunchild told SASKTODAY.ca.
“You know, to me, it reminds me of what Debbie Baptiste went through the night [her son] Colton [Boushie] was shot. When [police] went to her house to tell her that Colton was dead, they smelled her breath and accused her of drinking. She wasn’t drinking.”
Sunchild added it was the same for Frenchman.
“Kyla wasn’t drinking. But why do police automatically assume when they deal with an Indigenous woman in distress that they are drunk? This is total racism and discrimination,” said Sunchild.
Frenchman said she wants justice for Tanner’s death.
“My baby should have been alive. No woman should experience this,” she said in a brief message.
The two police officers who arrested Frenchman have been suspended.
