starlight tour wiki

Sask. man whose allegations led to trial over police 'Starlight Tours' dies at 56

A Saskatchewan man at the centre of an infamous police misconduct trial passed away on April 2.

On Jan. 28, 2000, Darrell Night was picked up by Saskatoon police officers Kenneth Munson and Daniel Hatchen and dropped off on the outskirts of the city by the Queen Elizabeth Power Station — a practice that came to be known as a “starlight tour.”

He was left to walk back in only light clothing in temperatures around -25 C, according to court records. Night pounded on the door of the power station until an attendant heard and he was able to go inside and call a cab.

He died at the age of 56 and was buried on April 17 in a cemetery in Saulteaux First Nation, near North Battleford, according to an online obituary.

Night came forward with his story following the discovery in early 2000 of the bodies of two Indigenous men, Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner, in the same area police left him.

Night’s story was a catalyst that led to the inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild , a 17-year-old Saulteaux boy whose body was found frozen in a field in the northwest outskirts of Saskatoon a decade earlier.

Munson and Hatchen were later found guilty of unlawful confinement in a jury trial.

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The incident shattered Night’s faith in law enforcement.

“Munson and Hatchen have given me a different perspective towards the police. I have no trust whatsoever towards policemen,” Night wrote in his victim impact statement.

It also created “a sharp division of feelings in the community,” said then-Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Eugene Scheibel.

“There have been demonstration of protest by the Aboriginal community and others in support of the police. It was a highly emotional trial,” Scheibel wrote in a 2001 judgment.

In a move Scheibel described as “surprising and ironical,” Munson and Hatchen attempted to propose a sentencing circle following their guilty verdict. Scheibel rejected it, saying it required the participants to show some level of remorse — a sentiment he found lacking in the two police officers.

“The issue of accepting responsibility for their actions has been ignored and continues to be ignored in the submissions on behalf of each accused,” he said.

“Hatchen's statement indicates he is remorseful because he feels ‘real shame for the trouble this is going to cause the service and [his] fellow officers.’ There is no reference of remorse for what happened to Night.”

In any case, Night also refused the suggestion.

“Who could fault him for his refusal to participate in what he sees as a sham, one lacking in sincerity, one lacking in true remorse and one where those who have inflicted the wrong accept no responsibility for their actions,” said Scheibel. 

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Freezing Deaths: The Starlight Tours

In the 90s and early 2000s, the Saskatoon Police Service faced public and legal scrutiny for practicing what became colloquially known as the "Starlight Tours." In summary, a Starlight Tour happens when an Indigenous person, frequently Indigenous men, is picked up by the police at night and abandoned outside of the city limits in subzero termpatures. An egregious abuse of power, tours were carried out in winter, and the men were left to freeze. This practice came to public eye after one man, Darryl Night, survived an attempted tour and filed a complaint against the SPS officers.

It was only after Darryl Night came forward that the deaths of Neil Stonechild, Rodney Naistus, and Lawrence Wegner were deemed suspicious. Because of existing prejudice and racism within the police force, it was assumed that these men had 'gotten drunk' and wandered off into the night. When Darryl Night came forward with his complaint, it triggered a demand for an independent inquiry into the deaths of Stonechild, Naistus, and Wegner. The two officers implicated in the Darryl Night case were found guilty of unlawful confinement and were fired from the police force and sent to jail for a minimum sentence. The Wright Inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild implicated the Saskatoon Police Service in the death of Stonechild. It found that their initial investigation was superficial and completely inadequate. Justice Wright also determined that Stonechild was in the care of the police the night of his murder and they were ultimately at fault for his death, though no officers have ever been formally charged. The inquiries into the deaths of Naistus and Wegner made no conclusive statements, but it is imperative to acknowledge they are victims of Starlight Tours as well. 

The freezing deaths of Indigenous men in Saskatoon exacerbated the already strained relationship between the Saskatoon Police Service and the Indigenous community. Many Indigenous people reported to the special investigator appointed by the FSIN that they were fearful of the police and did not feel comfortable reporting concerns out of fear that their claims would not be taken seriously. The inquiry revealed a distinct lack of trust in the police service, respondents fearing that more community members would one day too be victims of a Starlight Tour. Over-policing in city areas with a high representation of Indigenous residents contributes to this unequitable power imbalance, makes Indigenous residents feel like they are constantly under surveillance, and is a function of systemic racism that unjustly categorizes Indigenous people as 'trouble-makers.' Starlight Tours also reveal disturbing colonial ideology which places value on the lives of white settlers over the lives of Indigenous peoples, reflected by the failure to address the suspicious deaths and the initial explanation of accidental death by intoxication. Starlight Tours, and the dismissal of Naistus, Wegner, and Stonechild's deaths as a result of "intoxication" by public agencies demonstrates how systemic racism endangers the lives of Indigenous people. 

• Razack, Sherene. ""It Happened More than Once": Freezings Death in Saskatchewan." Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 26, no. 1 (2014): 51-80. 
• The Honourable Mr. Justice David H. Wright. Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild. Government of Saskatchewan. October 2004. 

Remembering Neil Stonechild and exposing systemic racism in policing

Associate Professor of Gender, Religion and Critical Studies; Academic Director of the Community Research Unit, University of Regina

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Michelle Stewart has received funding from a wide-range of agencies including but not limited to: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Science Foundation, and Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.

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On Nov. 29, 1990, the body of Neil Stonechild, a Saulteaux First Nations teen, was found frozen in a field on the outskirts of Saskatoon. It was -28C. He was just 17-years-old at the time of his death. He was found wearing only jeans and a light jacket and was missing one shoe.

Light jacket.

On Dec. 5, 1990, the Saskatoon Police Service closed the investigation into the death of Neil Stonechild. Despite visible injuries to the body of the Indigenous teenager, the file was closed. The investigation closed prior to receiving the Coroner’s Report, prior to receiving the toxicology report and prior to completing interviews with all witnesses.

In her book, Dying from Improvement , critical race scholar Sherene Razack discusses the Stonechild inquiry. She reports that the investigating officer said: “the kid went out, got drunk, went for a walk and froze to death.”

It would take over a decade and the freezing deaths of two more men and the near-death of another to crack the case wide open. Neil, the teenager, once dismissed as drunk and responsible for his own death, would become subject of a public inquiry that would lead to the firing of two police officers. His death would become synonymous with a racialized police practice called starlight tours.

Starlight tours describes a practice of police taking Indigenous people (said to have been picked up drunk or rowdy) and dropping them off at the edge of the city in the middle of the winter night . As Razak writes: “That there is a popular term [for this practice] is testimony to the fact that it happened more than once. The practice of drop-offs is a lethal one when the temperature is -28C and if the long walk back to town is undertaken without proper clothing and shoes.”

Remembering Neil

It’s November 2019, and I am talking to Neil’s brother, Chris Lindgren Astakeesic, about his brother’s death nearly 30 years ago. Chris recalls when his sister told him that Neil had died.

He was devastated. He had only been reunited with his younger brother and family in recent years after being in the foster care system and living outside Saskatchewan. Coming back into his family’s life, Chris made an immediate connection with Neil. Despite not being raised together, they shared a love of wrestling and created a solid bond.

Chris remembers Neil as many others did as a “fun-loving and very caring” person, adding that he “loved messing with him. He was a great kid and great brother. He loved life.”

Neil was wearing the letterman jacket that Chris gave him when he was found in the field. Stella, Neil’s mom, talked about the jacket during the inquiry into his death. The jacket had particular importance to Chris. Neil had treasured it and so Chris gave Neil the jacket before leaving for a trip to Ontario.

Given the sentimental importance of the jacket, Chris went to the police after the investigation concluded to request Neil’s belongings including the jacket. The Saskatoon Police told him they couldn’t find it. “I don’t even know if this has been told publicly,” says Chris. “But we couldn’t find any of his stuff.” The jacket and Neil’s other possessions were never returned. Chris tells me his mom, Stella, “was heartbroken.”

The inquiry

Chris speaks with a broken voice, recalling with vivid detail the time around Neil’s death and his experiences attending the inquiry as he drove back and forth to Saskatoon to attend as many dates as possible and be with his family.

I ask Chris what he thinks happened to Neil that night.

Chris mentions two police constables. “I think Hartwig and Senger had some fun, tried to scare him and it went to far,” he says. Chris recalls that Neil’s friend, Jason Roy, reported seeing Neil in the back of a police car that night. When Jason last saw Neil he was begging for help, screaming, “Help me, they are going to kill me.”

The findings of the inquiry established that police constables Larry Hartwig and Bradley Senger “took Stonechild into custody” and that the injuries and marks to his body “were likely caused by handcuffs.”

Hartwig and Senger argued their innocence and said they did not have contact with Stonechild that night. Evidence to the contrary was presented.

The evidence led Justice David H. Wright to conclude that Hartwig did recall the events that night (despite his assertions otherwise) and as such “ his assertions are deliberate deception designed to conceal his involvement .” The inquiry, through witness after witness’ testimony, offered a lesson in systemic racism in a settler state. But the recommendations did not address systemic racism and instead focused primarily on race relations.

Hartwig and Senger were dismissed from duty in November 2004 within a month of the report’s release. They appealed. Their appeals were rejected and the courts upheld the findings of the inquiry.

Stereotypes of victims hinder justice

The question of Neil’s personal belongings mirrors more recent stories in Saskatchewan. There are too many stories of other families that did not receive personal items from their loved ones. Often this is connected to a lack of investigation into sudden deaths.

After Nadine Machiskinic , a 29-year-old Indigenous mother of four died in Regina, the family reported her items were thrown away before a police investigation was even able to begin .

After 14-year-old Haven Dubois drowned in a shallow ravine, his family challenged the coroner’s report that had ruled his death an accident with marijuana as a contributing factor. His death had limited investigation.

The families of Haven and Nadine both argue their loved ones did not get a full investigation because of perceptions about them, as Indigenous people, on the prairies.

Like Neil’s family, these families fight for justice for years on end. They fight back against the ruling of accidental death. They call for inquiries and inquests. They fight back against assumptions made about the intoxication of the victim versus the real possibility of foul play.

Fifteen years later after the inquiry

The image of Neil Stonechild’s body lying in a frozen field still haunts the prairies.

The starlight tours continue to have ripple effects and impact relations between Indigenous peoples and police. The release of the 2004 Report of the Commission of Inquiry Into Matters Relating to the Death of Neil Stonechild called for reforms including more police accountability.

Of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, 18 deal with the criminal justice system . No. 39 calls upon the federal government to develop a national plan to collect and publish data on the criminal victimization of Aboriginal people, and No. 38 calls upon all levels of government to commit to eliminating the over-representation of Aboriginal youth in custody over the next decade. The TRC also placed emphasis on truth. We need to tell the truth about police practices and starlight tours in the prairies in Canada.

Concerns have been raised by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN). “We have come a long way in 15 years but there is always room for improvement,” Dutch Lerat, the Vice Chief for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, told APTN. “ We urge the Ministry of Justice to improve upon the public complaints process with emphasis on creating a civilian-led oversight authority .”

Saskatchewan is one of the last provinces to adopt independent civilian oversight despite ongoing, high-profile cases that raise concerns about how police work .

I spoke to Chris on the phone between anniversaries that no family should have to know: the freezing death of your loved one and the release of the findings of a public inquiry into their death.

“I am hoping [other families] can go back to this story for future reference and for future kids, so this doesn’t happen again.”

In honour of his memory: Neil Stonechild was a 17-year-old boy. His family loved him. Neil froze to death and some of the last people to see him alive were two police officers. Neil Stonechild died as a result of the starlight tours.

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Spheres of Influence

Canada’s Best-Kept Secret: Starlight Tours 

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What Are Starlight Tours?

First documented in 1976, Starlight Tours are a Canadian police practice that continues until today. Starlight Tours happen in Western Canada, notably in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. The practice involves law enforcement officers driving Indigenous people to remote locations and leaving them stranded in sub-zero temperatures. These tours begin with police typically profiling and arresting Indigenous people for alleged drunkenness or disorderly behavior. Such judgements, however, are often founded upon stereotypes and are inaccurate in many instances. Victims will often have their clothes and belongings taken by officers, further exposing them to the harsh elements. Despite intentionally leaving victims defenseless in freezing temperatures, the cause of death for someone who does not survive is simply “hypothermia.” No police officers have been charged with murder for carrying out a Starlight Tour.

Canada’s Legal History With Starlight Tours

For decades, the Canadian public has overlooked Starlight Tours. Within Indigenous communities, this practice is all too familiar. Darrell Night , a Saulteaux First Nation member and survivor of a Starlight Tour, best describes the horrifying nature of these tours. He said of the experience, “I thought I was dead. All those rumours I heard in the past, they were all coming true.”

On January 28, 2000, two officers took Night out of town and left him stranded. He was wearing only a light denim jacket in -25 Celsius weather. Night told the officers, “I’ll freeze to death out here,”  to which one officer replied, “That’s your f-ing problem.” Night survived after walking to a nearby power plant and pounding on the door for nearly 30 minutes until a worker heard him. Days after the incident, the frozen bodies of two other Indigenous men – 25-year-old Rodney Naistus and 30-year-old Lawrence Wegner – were found close to where Night was left. 

After the two deaths, Night came forward to report his experience to the authorities. The similarity of the three cases prompted an RCMP internal investigation, which led to a series of inquests. Judicial inquiries into the deaths of four men opened. Those men were Lloyd Dustyhorn , Rodney Naistus , Lawrence Wegner and Neil Stonechild . All four were victims of Starlight Tours, and in all four cases, the jury concluded their deaths were accidental, either caused by hypothermia or unknown circumstances. 

Night, however, did see some justice . The two police officers who took Night – Ken Munson and Dan Hatchen – were suspended without pay, found guilty of unlawful confinement, and ordered to serve an eight-month jail sentence. Unfortunately, they were free after serving only half of their sentences. 

The Province of Saskatchewan created a commission of inquiry into the death of Neil Stonechild, criticizing the Saskatoon Police Service and making eight recommendations for change. They recommended increasing the number of Indigenous police officers, designating an Aboriginal peace officer with the rank of Sergeant, improving race relations and anger management training for officers, and making it easier for the public to file complaints against the police. Nineteen years later, progress remains slow, and Starlight Tours continue happening. 

Starlight Tours Today

According to mainstream news networks, the most recent Starlight Tour incident is that of Jeremiah Skunk of Mishkeegogamang First Nation. In the summer of 2019, an Ontario Provincial Police officer took the young man, left him on the side of a highway and told him not to return. He walked, in intense heat, for 10 to 14 hours to Gull Bay, the closest community to him. In a CBC interview, Skunk recalled that he had to drink water out of puddles on the side of the road to stay hydrated, stating, “I could have died.” As shocking as his account is, Skunk is not the most recent Starlight Tour victim, not by a long shot. 

On April 4, 2023, a video on the social media platform TikTok described the practice of Starlight Tours. In the comments, hundreds of users united to share their stories. Some shared first-hand accounts, and others shared the stories of their loved ones. 

• User A wrote: “Had a cousin and uncle die from this. On their record, it states [they] drank too much. Both never drank in their life.”
• User B wrote: “Happened to my brother! Took his shoes and jacket, he walked back to the city and it took almost 3 hours until he got back.”
• User C said: “Worst is when they take your belt shoelaces [and] warm coats, been stranded outskirts of town myself multiple times … “
• User D wrote: “They did this to me while I was 8 months pregnant in the rain … I only had a tank top and leggings on, it was freezing, probably walked for 6 hours before I got picked up.” 

There is a reason why these stories are not brought to the forefront. Without media coverage, the public cannot develop an understanding of an issue, its prevalence, or its impact. Since Starlight Tours are underreported, the public can perceive them as isolated, rare incidents. People can underestimate the severity and scope of this practice and remain unaware that they are a systemic issue. 

Additionally, when Starlight Tours go unreported, those responsible escape scrutiny. Media is instrumental in holding individuals and institutions accountable. The Saskatoon Police Service was well aware of this when Addison Herman, a University Student, caught them removing the “Starlight Tours” section from their department’s Wikipedia page multiple times between 2012 and 2013. In 2022 the Saskatchewan Provincial Government chose not to include Starlight Tours in their school curriculum. These actions are not accidental; they are an intentional pattern of erasure and colonial violence. 

Police Brutality in Canada

Colonialism is not a past phenomenon. It is an ongoing process of discrimination, trauma, and unfair treatment. Within the criminal justice system, it manifests as systemic racism. Systemic racism is when an institution’s behaviours, policies, or practices create or perpetuate racial inequalities. It helps explain the persistence of Starlight Tours in Canada. 

Because Starlight Tours targets Indigenous people, they are a form of racial discrimination and police brutality. Police brutality is excessive force used by a police officer. By forcibly taking Indigenous peoples and abandoning them in extreme conditions, officers abuse their power and cause unnecessary harm. But Tours are not limited to the actions of a few “bad apples” like the media may suggest. The system and structures create and uphold those who perpetrate these acts. 

Systemic racism and biases baked into legal institutions are what enable Starlight Tours. Given this, an explicit focus on those systems and structures is pertinent. System-wide change is necessary. Across all levels of government, there needs to be a commitment to addressing structural racism. This commitment means reforming legislation and policy, implementing anti-racism training, funding Indigenous police programs , and re-establishing a genuine relationship with Indigenous communities. The federal government should develop a measure of structural racism to track progress. To ensure transparency, it should make the regularly collected data of the measure public.

What Can You Do?

To help prevent Starlight Tours, a series of steps can be taken. Listen to marginalized voices that too often get silenced. Learn from news networks that amplify Indigenous stories, like APTN News , IndigiNews and Indigenous Network . Sharing information and raising awareness is necessary to help generate public pressure for change. Help out associations that support Indigenous communities like Reconciliation Canada , The Urban Native Youth Association , and The Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Colour . If possible, donate to organizations that aid Indigenous people, like Indspire, The Native American Rights Fund , and The Indian Residential School Survivors’ Society.

Madalynn Hausch

Madalynn is currently studying political science at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include gender in politics, sexual and reproductive health rights, Big Tech, and data justice.... More by Madalynn Hausch

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This Was The First Documented Starlight Tour Case

So-called Starlight Tours refer to a particular practice by Canada's Saskatoon Police that is rarely documented but has resulted in at least five First Nations men freezing to death, including a 17-year-old boy, in the "wind-whipped prairie," according to the Washington Post .

 A Starlight Tour is when police drive intoxicated Indigenous people out of town and leave them to walk home and sober up. According to CBC News , the practice was mostly the stuff of urban legend due to a lack of police reports from either side, but the activity underscores a long history of racism against Canada's Indigenous people who were dropped off many miles from home in freezing cold temperatures and left to try to make it home on foot.

The practice was first documented in 1976, Two Row Times reported, when two aboriginal men and a woman who was eight months pregnant were picked up by a Saskatoon police officer and dropped off outside of the city, left to make it home on their own.

The situation is described in the 2005 book, " Starlight Tour: The Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild. " According to the woman in the 1976 case, an officer approached her and her companions about drinking in public and told them to get into his cruiser. At first she thought they were going to jail. But that's not where they went. 

The woman was the first person to report a Starlight Tour

According to the woman, the three friends fell into silence as the cruiser took them outside of town, not understanding what was happening. The cruiser came to a stop. The officer silently got out of the car, grabbed them each by the collar and pulled them out before getting back behind the wheel and wordlessly driving away. At first, she said they were relieved to have been released unharmed, but then, they realized how far they were from town. During the long walk home she resolved to report the incident, even though she thought no one would believe her. In the end, the woman was able to prove her story.

In October, 1976 the Saskatoon Police Chief posted a memo, which is published in "Starlight Tour: The Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild," for all of his staff to see. It read: "Instead of charging the people with having liquor in a place other then a dwelling, the officer (forced) the said persons into a Police vehicle and (drove) them to a remote area outside the City Limits and (left) said individuals to walk back to the City, particularly a female who was then eight months pregnant."

According to the memo, officer denied the accusations, but was found guilty. He was "reprimanded" and fined $200.

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True Crime: Learn about the people who froze to death on Starlight Tours

Canada has built up quite the reputation over the years. Our neighbor to the north is generally known as the nicest, most laid back country. The chillest (and sometimes chilliest) place in our continent. Canada is where we threaten to move to when things don’t go our way in the United States.

And yet, Canada is far from perfect. While the Canadian dark side is far less cartoonish than what South Park would have you believe, it does exist. There’s crime in Canada. True crime.

Have you heard of the “starlight tours”?

Starwhat now?

Let’s start by bringing up a place most Americans (except for those obsessed with true crime) probably haven’t heard of. Welcome to Saskatoon, the biggest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Saskatoon gets its name from the Saskatoon berry, exclusive to its region, and has such colorful alternate names as “Paris of the Prairies” & “Bridge City”.

Saskatoon is also home to the Saskatoon Police Service, the infamous police force responsible for the starlight tours. Not exactly the kind of stuff they advertise on tourist pamphlets, but that’s what true crime journalism is for, isn’t it? 

The term “starlight tours” refers to the practice of taking Indigenous Canadians (yes, it’s that specific) and driving them to the edge of the city in the dead of Winter, where they would be abandoned. For extra kicks, police officers would take their victims’ clothing, leaving them not only stranded, but also unprotected from the sub-zero temperatures.

Freezing deaths

While it’s unclear how many victims have succumbed to the practice of starlight tours, there are three officially documented deaths associated with them. 

Rodney Naistus & Lawrence Wegner died in 2000, their bodies discovered on the outskirts of Saskatoon. An investigation into their demise revealed hypothermia as the cause of death and brought about a set of recommendations related to police policies & indigenous-police relations. 

The third victim was Neil Stonechild, a seventeen-year-old whose death wasn’t fully investigated until 2003 – even though his body was found in 1990 in a field outside Saskatoon. The inquiry into Stonechild’s death resulted in the firing of the two police officers who were suspected to have abused him. That said, the investigation was unable to conclude what the circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death were.

As is the case in many true crime sagas, some victims are luckier than others. In January 2000, Darrell Night actually survived a starlight tour, managing to reach a nearby power station and call a taxi after being abandoned outside Saskatoon. The two police officers responsible for Night’s near-death experience would later claim they’d simply given Night a ride home and dropped him off at his own request.

Those officers were Dan Hatchen & Ken Munson of the Saskatoon Police Service. Despite their attempts at painting themselves as an alternative Canadian rideshare service, Hatchet & Munson were eventually convicted of unlawful confinement in September 2001 and sentenced to eight months in prison. Darrell Night’s ordeal would later be immortalized in Tasha Hubbard’s documentary Two Words Colliding .

For years, the Saskatoon Police Service insisted all these were isolated incidents that didn’t reflect an actual issue within their police force . However, in 2003, police chief Russell Sabo revealed the existence of a 1976 disciplinary report that implied starlight tours had possibly been a problem for almost thirty years.

Apparently, someone in the Saskatoon Police Service didn’t feel the institution had been embarrassed enough by the freezing deaths outside Saskatoon. In a bizarre turn of events, between 2012 & 2016, the “Starlight Tours” section of the Saskatoon Police Service’s Wikipedia page was deleted multiple times. 

Anyone who’s ever battled Wikipedia moderators knows self-editing your page is a losing proposition. An internal investigation concluded two of the edits were made from a computer within the police service ( they couldn’t even hire a hacker? ) but a spokesperson for the force denied the Wikipedia edits were approved by the Saskatoon Police Service. The rogue anti-Wiki crusader was never identified.

The idea of an incognito Saskatoon police officer editing a Wikipedia page over & over again for four years is the kind of ridiculous coda many true crime fans would treasure. Of course, the silly attempt is now also recorded on the Saskatoon Police Service Wikipedia page.

Ever since the Neil Stonechild investigation, the Saskatoon Police Services claims they continue to move forward on positive work regarding relations between the police & Indigenous Canadians. Hopefully, that means we’ll never have to hear about new starlight tours again.

Julio Olivera

Julio Olivera is an independent filmmaker and podcaster based in Austin, Texas. A native Peruvian, Julio fell in love with American media early on and has made it a constant driving force in his life since moving to the U.S.

[email protected]

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Someone at police headquarters deleted starlight tour reference on Wiki page

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Saskatoon police have confirmed that someone from inside the police department deleted references to “starlight tours” from the Wikipedia web page about the police force.

The student who originally discovered that the page had been edited to exclude that dark part of the Saskatoon Police Service’s history said he’s upset someone on the force would try to re-write history. 

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“I’m upset because I think they should be transparent about their past,” said Addison Herman, who discovered the edited page while researching a university history paper. 

The deleted section of the Wikipedia page outlined the history of the department’s “starlight tours,” in which aboriginal men were allegedly taken out of town by police officers and dropped off.  

The section has since been reposted. It makes reference to allegations that at least three men, including Neil Stonechild, were left at the outskirts of the city by police. 

On Wikipedia, tracing who makes which edits to a post is easy; every edit is catalogued by the specific Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer used to make the change. Herman was easily able to trace that address back to Saskatoon police headquarters. 

A police spokeswoman acknowledged that the section on starlight tours had been deleted using a computer within the department, but said investigators were unable to pinpoint who did it.

“We confirmed that the IP address does belong to the SPS, however logs of specific computer data and its usage aren’t kept longer than 30 days, unless deemed necessary,” Kelsie Fraser said in a email.

“Because of that, we aren’t able to identify the specific computer that may have been used and weren’t aware of the changes to the page until it was brought to our attention.”

Fraser said the force continues to “move forward with all of the positive work that has been done, and continues to be done that came out of the Stonechild inquiry.”

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YOUTH OF CANADA

Youth are the future.

• Dec 14, 2020

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 Indigenous people for "starlight

tours"and dates back to at least 1976. Many victims died from hypothermia.

A very disturbing aspect is the fact that the Saskatoon police have tried to cover

up the abuse and murders of these people. It was declared (In March 2016 from the Saskatoon Phoenix) that a member of the police deleted the references of the “The

Starlight Tours” wikipedia page. As of 2020, despite convictions for related offences, no Saskatoon police officer has been convicted specifically for having caused these freezing deaths.

It is clear and simple that these failures in policing contribute to a climate of

suspicion and a widespread belief that the police target and discriminate Indigenous

women and men. These crimes must not go unpunished, we must unite as citizens and

demand justice for these souls that passed away under unimaginable conditions. In the

words of the infamous Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you

have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

-- Written by Anna Rezaigue

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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express is roaring back and I’m ready to be transported

This daffy musical about racing trains inspired countless stage careers, including my own. A child’s imagination made real, it is a perfect introduction to theatre

T he light at the end of the tunnel shines again this summer as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express returns to London. The original production closed in 2002 after almost 18 years, making it the West End’s ninth longest-running show. For me it was the gateway to a love of theatre and performing which has never left – and also means I can’t visit Pizza Express without humming the title track. Here’s why we should hail the musical’s return …

It’s the original piece of immersive theatre

In 1984 this was as immersive as it got: a theatre turned into a racetrack. When the show takes over the huge Troubadour in Wembley Park it’s bound to be even more spectacular. Seating charts with “first-class carriage” and “trackside” options have given an idea of how close audiences will get to the racetrack as the cast of 40 quadruple threats (acting, singing, dancing – and skating) whiz past, leaving you with the wind in your hair and a whiff of deodorant in your nose.

Glorious joyous nonsense

The concept of Starlight sounds like screwball ramblings: “A child’s train set comes to life and they race to be the fastest. Chuck in love story between steam train Rusty and first-class carriage Pearl. His rival, Greaseball, will be a sendup of Elvis. Everything about Electra will strongly suggest he’s bisexual – let’s call his first song AC/DC.” But oh boy, is it fun. New director Luke Sheppard showed us with & Juliet that he knows how to do fun on stage and hopefully will do so on tracks, too.

It will get kids into the theatre

Lloyd Webber said he conceived the show as an entertainment event for children who love trains. The whole show is a child’s imagination made real and Starlight has always been the perfect family-friendly entry point to the magic of live theatre for tiny humans. You would not believe how many people on stage and behind the scenes are there because they saw singing steam trains when they were young. The show transports families into a world of high-energy escapism, and never has that been more needed.

The new crew are champs

Original choreographer Arlene Philips has turned creative dramaturg alongside a new team. Tim Hatley’s design for Back to the Future made a musical feel like a film, Andrzej Goulding’s Life of Pi video turned a theatre into an ocean and Gabriella Slade’s costumes crowned the Six queens. I’m excited to see the man who taught me to shuffle ball change when I did panto, choreographer Ashley Nottingham, have better success with actual professionals.

It’s still a mystery

Who knows what this version will be like? A key plot point (spoiler alert!) is diesel being better than electric. Cue Tesla owners revolting. Perhaps there will be a Hogwarts Express crossover? At least the jokes about British trains being late will still be relevant. The new production will be updated and refreshed for a new generation. It’s already a rework of a rework after it was revised in the 90s and again in Germany, where it has run since 1988 and where the British train is now named Brexit. But the music is pure nostalgia and the synth beats will be banging for Starlight Express and Make Up My Heart, both with lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. The catchy I Do was added to the German version, composed by Lloyd Webber’s son Alistair and with lyrics by Nick Coler – expect that to be your latest earworm.

It’s punderful

Critics will get to choo-choose as many skating and train-related puns as possible. Expect them to use their platform to get their skates on before being derailed, going off the tracks and becoming a trainwreck.

Chris Cox is a mind-reader and performer on stage and screen

Starlight Express opens at the Troubadour, Wembley Park, London, on 8 June

• Andrew Lloyd Webber

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Rod Picott – Starlight Tour (Album Review)

Produced by Neilson Hubbard , Rod Picott talks of how Starlight Tour , his 14 th album, is raw and unvarnished, both musically and emotionally, the songs digging deep into his own story or what could have been. As such, thoughts of morality get things underway with the chugging Next Man In Line , written after seeing his father’s life diminish following his wife’s death and realising how his own life has more years behind than in front, asking himself, “ Did you get your share did you waste your time?”

Getting Tom Waits bluesy with throaty vocals and rasping guitar, Digging Ditches is a blue-collar gripe against a brutal manual labour life of torn shirts and rust, “decorated with scars and stitches ” and where “ nothing gets tossed/We keep it all make it work again/Ain’t nothing gets broken that you can’t mend ”, a resentment of settling for what’s always been and not what you wanted it to be as he growls “ You gotta punish what you’re not where I come from ”.

The spare, fingerpicked arrangement belies the anger coursing through the ironic Television Preacher, which, evocative of Kristofferson and Clark, sets images of austerity and hardship (“ We ain’t got much there ain’t much to lose/Money is tighter than poor boy’s shoes ”) against the evangelist grifters bleeding their god-fearing marks dry (“ Arms to heaven he starts to preach/Grabs ten percent of my old man’s check ”), closing with the bitter line “ Let Jesus himself find next month’s rent ”.

The tempo picks back up for A Puncher’s Chance , a co-write with Brian Koppelman (the screenwriter of Ocean’s Thirteen and director of Knockaround Guys ), which, drawing on a pugilist theme that’s been a  constant in his work, takes the idea of a boxer at the end of his fighting days, with the only thing left being his strength, as a  metaphor for giving it one last go in the ring of life and love (“ Always the underdog and never the champ/Busted and broken a beat up tramp/Smart money’s on the guy who can jab and dance/But the long shot’s gonna pay off, darlin’ I got a puncher’s chance…Forget the short game we’re gonna play long If you are willing to go the distance with me I’ll be in your corner whatever may be ”).

Koppelman also shares a credit on the lightly picked world-weary Combine , a song which shares a similar idea, this time in the form of a piece of farm equipment at the end of its working life, the narrator relying on it after a racing bet never paid off (“now I’m stuck with a broke down rig/And the damn thing is threatening not to start/I can’t afford to lose these crops and I can’t afford the parts ”) praying “ All I need is one more harvest from this old combine ”.

Another co-wrote, this time with Amy Speace and gestating over several years, polished with pedal steel, Homecoming Queen returns to the album’s what was (“ She had good friends in Junior High/Watching Little League games on those August nights/Read the dirty parts of Judy Blume/On a canopy bed in the afternoon/I heard one night up on the Tower Hill/She rounded third base with a college kid ”) and what might have been theme  (“ She ran to California without any plan/Married the drummer from a heavy metal band/Ended up a footnote in Rolling Stone/Licked her wounds and moved back home ”), and of not living in the past (“ Everybody wants to make a big show/But nobody ever tells you it’s time to put away your rock and roll clothes ”).

The Guy Clark-like title track is Picott’s fleshing out of a lyric sent to him by Nashville singer songwriter  Nick Nace. The seemingly romantic title actually refers to the Saskatoon Police practice of supposedly driving drunk indigenous peoples out to the edge of town and leaving them there to die of hypothermia during the cold winter months (“ They dropped him off on the outskirts of town/Twenty below two feet of snow on the ground/His crime was being drunk, brown and poor ”). Opening with a scene setter (“ She said he was my daddy but I ain’t so sure/He might have been just another bad night’s cure/But he was good to my mama and the liquor store/He don’t come around here no more ”), it shifts to a reflection on prejudice, victimisation and judgement in “ Habits come cheap and they sink in hard/A car on blocks in a frost bound yard/And you can’t escape the skin you’re in/A walking reminder of another man’s sin ”.

The uptempo punchy drums rocking Wasteland was inspired by Bull Mountain , a Southern Gothic novel by Brian Panowich about a family of bootleggers and the black sheep who becomes a lawman, and the lengths men will go to protect it, honour it, or sometimes destroy it, the song written as the first person combined perspectives of its characters as it speaks of addiction (“ The Florida line runs through here/OxyContin And Fentanyl/The only thing I know for sure/You got a pain we got a cure ”), loyalty and belonging as it cautions “ You ain’t one of us this ain’t your home/Our hands are clean we just grease the wheel/Take our cut and that’s the deal …If you think you’re better with your city lights/You best just stay there cause out here it’s dark at night ”.

 Ebbing back to ruminative picked acoustic,  Pelican Bay had its origins in a friend describing watching pelicans dive for fish, from which developed this bittersweet story of a  traumatised vet (“ Two tours out in the jungle of Viet goddamn Nam/And it scrambled something in my head left me shaking down inside/In the place no one can see and it stripped of my pride ”) finding redemption through the love of a good woman (“ We were married by a justice of the peace/No family throwing rice just her and just me/The only thing that mattered in the whole damn world/Was the hand I held and my trust in that girl ”) and their baby daughter, discovering peace “ at the end of the day/Watching birds dive on Pelican Bay ”, those memories clung to after his wife’s passing (“ Now I walk the beach and carry a stick scratch her name into sand/Stand and watch the ocean come and take her back again ”).

If that brings a lump to the throat, then keep the tissues on hand for the album’s closer, the intimately sung, slow waltzing lullaby It’s Time To Let Go Of Your Dreams , a number he describes as literally the saddest song he’s ever written, fuelled by a deep depression brought on by “ a profound guilt and loyalty to my aging father and some sense of abandoned ambition in my work ”, a sense of growing old and seeing those dreams of youth turn into ghosts (“ Love came on wings but she no longer sings/’Cause you’ve driven too far off the map…It’s snake oil there in the bottle/And you try to smile as you swallow/It’s a bitter taste and it all goes to waste/When you’re running out of tomorrows ”) and, ending with a valedictory trumpet, of letting them go and finding another falling star, as he whisperingly ends with “ So go and make a new wish/Let it come soft as a kiss/old it close to your chest and there it will rest/It’s time to find a new dream ”.

Rod Picott rightly reckons this stands alongside Welding Burns and Paper Hearts & Broken Arrows as the best three albums he’s ever made. If this is the first crop of him ploughing a new field of dreams, then future harvests should prove no less bountiful. 

Website: http://rodpicott.com/

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A complete guide to 'Starlight Express' in the West End

Learn more about the return of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Starlight Express' which will begin performances at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in June 2024.

Get your skates on! The one and only Starlight Express is powering down the tracks and back into a London theatre for 2024. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe’s musical about trains, which was first seen in the West End in 1984, and went on to become the ninth-longest-running West End show, is making a major comeback.

It’s full steam ahead for Starlight Express at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre , which will be transformed into The Starlight Auditorium. At the very least, the venue will need to accommodate a cast on roller skates and a specially engineered track.

Read on for our guide to this iconic musical, and what we can expect from its 2024 London revival.

The origins of Starlight Express

Andrew Lloyd Webber actually began with the idea of making a TV series based on the Reverend W Awdry’s popular Thomas the Tank Engine children’s books. This was back in 1974, and he even started composing possible songs for the show, collaborating with lyricist Peter Reeves and artist Brian Cosgrove. Granada TV did commission a pilot episode, but ultimately decided that the Thomas stories didn’t have enough international reach to justify funding a whole series.

Of course, that was proved massively wrong when the TV series Thomas & Friends later premiered, to enormous success. But Lloyd Webber’s fascination with trains continued. He wrote novelty song “Engine of Love”, with Reeves, for American singer Earl Jordan after discovering Jordan could sing three notes simultaneously – sounding just like a steam whistle.

Lloyd Webber also worked on songs for a potential animated version of Cinderella on US TV. It didn’t go anywhere, but trains cropped up again: the story turned the main characters into competing trains, with Cinderella a steam engine, and the Ugly Sisters represented by electric and diesel engines.

All of that train prep work finally came into focus in 1981, when Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe presented two songs from a potential new show, Starlight Express, to the Sydmonton Festival. There director Trevor Nunn grew interested, although he thought the current material was on the twee side, and wanted to add more “spectacle and theatre magic”.

Choreographer Arlene Phillips and designer John Napier came on board, along with the madcap idea of putting the actors on roller skates to suggest the movement of the trains.

What is Starlight Express about?

The plot of Starlight Express has changed frequently over the years, but originally at least it began with a boy playing with his toy trains, and in his dreams, those trains coming to life; the boy also acts as Control. Rusty the steam engine is mocked by bullying American diesel engine Greaseball for being obsolete. Control then tells Rusty to collect four coaches from a passenger train: dining car Dinah, smoking car Ashley, buffet car Buffy, and observation car Pearl. We also meet trucks from a freight train and a brake truck, CB.

Six international trains arrive to enter the championship, along with Greaseball. One of them is Electra, a cutting-edge electric train. The competition sees pairs of trains competing: an engine pulling a coach. Pearl rejects Rusty and teams up with Electra, while Greaseball and Dinah prove a winning combination – albeit with some cheating.

An old steam engine, Poppa, enters to prove to Rusty that steam is still relevant, and surprisingly wins his heat. But he’s exhausted, so he needs Rusty to take his place. Rusty prays to the mythical Starlight Express for help.

In the second act, Pearl ditches Electra for Greaseball, who in turns dumps Dinah. In the finals, CB sabotages Rusty, and this time the Starlight Express answers his pleas and appears to him. Rusty is inspired and re-enters the race. Amid the chaos and in-fighting, Rusty wins but almost sacrifices his victory to check on Pearl. She finally realises he’s a good guy, and the whole group gangs up on Control to take charge of their own fates – and to celebrate a renaissance for steam power.

Starlight Express opens in London

Following a workshop in 1983, the team prepared for the world premiere of Starlight Express . It had its official opening on 27 March 1984 at the massive Apollo Victoria Theatre (now the home of Wicked ) in London’s West End. The show had huge race tracks going right from the stage into the audience, plus a six-tonne bridge which could go up and down to join different levels of the set.

The original cast featured Ray Shell as Rusty, Stephanie Lawrence as Pearl, Jeff Shankley as Greaseball, Jeffrey Daniel as Electra, Frances Ruffelle as Dinah, and Lon Sutton as Poppa.

It was a commercial hit, going on to run until January 2002. There were numerous revisions, however, with new material being introduced from the Broadway version, including several songs.

In fact, the production was relaunched in 1992 as The New Starlight Express , and saw big changes made. A total of 12 songs were removed and five were added, the second act opening rap was rewritten, and, most significantly, two characters – Belle and CB – were removed altogether, which meant big plot rewrites.

Starlight Express on Broadway and beyond

The musical opened at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway in March 1987, and ran until 1989. It was an opportunity for the creative team to streamline the story and make changes like giving Pearl a ballad, “Make Up My Heart”, and to include Lloyd Webber’s song for Earl Jordan, “Engine of Love”. Some references in the Broadway version were also tweaked for American audiences.

The show then went on to play in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and in major tours of North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

However, arguably the real home of Starlight Express is Bochum in Germany. There you’ll find the purpose-built Starlight Express Theater, which opened in 1988 – and the show has played there continuously ever since, reaching more than 19 million people. The venue has three levels with large train tracks, and features in the Guinness Book of Records.

This version of Starlight Express is closest to the Broadway production, but, under director Dion McHugh, there have been yet more changes. In 2017, Lloyd Webber revisited the show and decided to update it. Following workshops at London’s The Other Palace, directed by Phillips, several songs were added and removed, and the gender balance was altered by turning Poppa and Bobo into female characters. The British train became “Brexit” and the Japanese train became “Manga”.

What can you expect from Starlight Express in 2024?

It will be fascinating to see which incarnation of the show is staged at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. Presumably it will be closest to that revised version in Bochum, but Lloyd Webber has also teased a “big new plot twist”, showing why “steam power is the future of the railway”.

What he calls the world’s first truly immersive musical will presumably be a large-scale spectacle making great use of the venue’s cavernous size, and plunging the audience into the heart of the action.

Luke Sheppard ( & Juliet ) is directing the show, and there’s set design by Tim Hatley ( Back to the Future ), video from Andrzej Goulding ( Life of Pi ) and costumes from Gabriella Slade ( SIX ). There’s also new orchestrations from Matthew Brind – and, of course, there will be roller skates!

Performances begin on 8 June 2024. Check back very soon for information on booking your Starlight Express tickets on London Theatre.

Originally published on Oct 18, 2023 14:17

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