Warning: this story incorporates particulars of violence and sexual assault.
The demise of Robert Wapuchakoos on the Regional Psychiatric Centre on April 27 concludes a narrative that started with a brutal slaying that despatched a shock wave by means of Saskatchewan in the summertime of 1982.
Joseph Duffy was a College of Regina schooling professor engaged on his Ph.D. on the College of Alberta in Edmonton. On June 30, 1982, a sizzling and sunny Wednesday, the 51-year-old was commuting residence on Freeway 11 to Regina in his yellow Pontiac Lemans.
About 10 kilometres south of Kenaston, Sask., 84 kilometres south of Saskatoon, Duffy got here throughout a automobile damaged down on the facet of the street. Two ladies had been waving for assist and Duffy pulled over to present help.
As soon as he stopped, two males — Robert Ironchild and Brian Obey — emerged from the ditch the place they’d been hiding and overpowered Duffy.
“For his efforts he was attacked and brought at knife level, in his personal automobile, to a farmer’s area. He was slashed with the knife and compelled from his automobile. The 4 then chased him with the automobile and ran him over, and over,” Duffy’s son, Mike, wrote in a letter to his MP in 1997.
Ironchild drove the automobile for subsequent a number of days earlier than asking a relative to eliminate it.
The homicide triggered a provincewide manhunt that ended one week later in Regina when the police tactical squad arrested Ironchild in a home after a two-hour standoff. At his trial in early 1983, Ironchild, then 27, was convicted of first-degree homicide, thanks partly to his co-accused testifying that Ironchild was the one who stabbed Duffy after which killed him along with his personal automobile. The co-accused, Brian Obey, was later stabbed to demise in Regina.
Former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney and Saskatchewan Chief Justice Edward Bayda served as honourary pallbearers at Duffy’s funeral. Duffy had been on the nationwide govt of the Canadian Council of Academics of English since 1975, and on the chief of the Saskatchewan Opera Guild.
Ironchild was sentenced to life in jail with no probability of parole for 25 years. Whereas in jail in Drumheller, Alta., he modified his title to Robert Wapuchakoos.
Wapuchakoos was launched on full parole in 2007. In 2022, he was re-arrested and positioned on the Regional Psychiatric Centre on an indeterminate sentence.
Wapuchakoos died on the Saskatoon jail hospital on April 27 of obvious pure causes, based on the Correctional Service of Canada. He was 69.
A sample of bother
Parole Board of Canada paperwork element how Wapuchakoos by no means actually totally re-integrated into society after serving his 25-year sentence.
He was launched on day parole in 2005 after which full parole in 2007. He was introduced again in and launched once more twice from 2009 to 2013.
“In 2014, you had been arrested and returned to custody and your launch was ultimately revoked,” the paperwork stated.
“You admitted to overdosing on ache treatment and ‘blacking out.'”
Wapuchakoos was granted his second full parole in 2019 with a handful of particular circumstances, together with staying inside 55 kilometres of the Piapot First Nation, 30 kilometres northeast of Regina.
“Documentation signifies you struggled locally,” the parole board famous.
He smoked marijuana with no prescription, deliberate to purchase a automobile in violation of his circumstances, “and also you had been additionally reported to maintain a kitchen knife close by when speaking to individuals resembling your parole supervisor.”
Formal warnings to alter his behaviour had been issued, however his launch was not suspended till Might 2022. That is when police informed his parole supervisor that he was below investigation for 3 sexual assault allegations involving “three aged ladies with diminished psychological capability because of dementia.”
Wapuchakoos was taken again into custody and positioned in an all-male care facility, however was moved after complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards feminine employees.
He was ultimately moved to the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon on an indeterminate sentence, as a result of “it’s the Board’s opinion that you’ll current an undue threat to society if launched on full parole.”
For anybody who has been sexually assaulted, there’s help accessible by means of disaster traces and native help providers through the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. For those who’re in instant hazard or worry on your security or that of others round you, please name 911.
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