OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian prison service officials could not have prevented an inmate who was out on parole from carrying out the country’s worst ever mass stabbing in which 11 people died, an official report said on Tuesday.
Myles Sanderson, 30, also injured 17 people in a series of attacks across 13 sites in the western province of Saskatchewan in early September 2022. He died of a cocaine overdose shortly after being arrested.
The stabbing spree rattled a country unaccustomed to acts of mass violence.
A probe into his release, carried out by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and the Parole Board of Canada (PBC), said the preparation had been reasonable and appropriate and carried out by qualified staff.
The investigation “concluded that there were no pre-indicators or precipitating events that were known to CSC and PBC staff, or that staff could have acted upon to prevent this incident,” the two organizations said in a news release.
Sanderson had been released on parole in February 2022 after serving jail time on charges of assault and robbery. Authorities issued an arrest warrant for him in May, when he failed to make required contact with his parole officer.
The killings raised questions about violence, trauma and substance use prevention and policing in remote and indigenous communities that are frequently marginalized.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
