Hundreds of police are still tracking the only surviving suspect of these attacks which also left 18 injured. Four of them were still in hospital in critical condition.
These attacks are among the deadliest in recent years in a country that was unaccustomed to this kind of scene, more frequent in its American neighbor.
Myles Sanderson, 30, is still at large and is armed, according to police, who found the body of his brother Damien Sanderson, 31, near the crime scene on Monday.
“We can’t say for sure how Damien died, but he may have been killed by his brother,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Rhonda Blackmore told reporters.
Known to the police and justice services, Myles Sanderson, who could himself be injured, was already wanted since last May for not having respected his judicial control. He had been sentenced to nearly five years in prison, notably for theft.
The killings first affected an Indigenous community in James Smith Cree Nation and then the nearby town of Weldon in Saskatchewan, a large, sparsely populated rural province in the mid-west of the country.
According to the police, some victims were targeted while others were randomly beaten. But the vast majority of them are indigenous. Since then the community of James Smith Cree Nation has declared a state of emergency.
– “They have already suffered enough” –
On social media, many people from the Cree community (one of Canada’s First Nations) were expressing their sadness and dismay. And the messages calling on Myles Sanderson to surrender multiplied.
Bobby Cameron, the leader of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents communities in the province, implored “all the people of Saskatchewan to share any relevant information”.
“Uncertainty continues to cause immeasurable stress and panic among our families, friends and neighbors. They have suffered enough already,” he added.
The community has already experienced episodes of violence. Last year, almost to the day, a shooting killed two people there.
In Canada, aboriginal people represent approximately 5% of the 38 million inhabitants, and live in communities often ravaged by unemployment and poverty.
According to the latest official figures, 50% of the population of the community is under the age of 24 and the unemployment rate there is 24%. Several officials also pointed to drug and alcohol problems as well as difficulties related to the generational trauma caused by a century of abuse, particularly in residential schools created for the natives.
Darryl Burns, whose sister was killed on Sunday, told local media that the two suspects were “products of residential schools” and “had a lot of anger.”
“The battle we are fighting here is not between us… The battle we are fighting here is against alcoholism and drug use,” he added.
In recent years, Canada has experienced a succession of events of rare violence for the country.
In April 2020, a shooter posing as a police officer killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. In January 2017, six people were killed and five were injured in attacks on a mosque in Quebec.
