OPP suspends officer after FN man says he was taken on starlight tour

Stanley Fiddler says he was taken on a starlight tour by an OPP officer who picked him up on Oct. 29, drove down a highway, opened the door to the cruiser and dropped him off several kilometres from Red Lake, Ont.

By Meagan Fiddler
APTN National News
RED LAKE, Ont.-
Stanley Fiddler says he was taken on a starlight tour by an OPP officer who picked him up on Oct. 29, drove down a highway, opened the door to the cruiser and dropped him off several kilometres from Red Lake, Ont.

The officer has since been suspended by the OPP which is conducting an internal investigation of the incident.

“He didn’t say nothing, just drove off down Hwy 35,” said Fiddler, in an interview with APTN National News. “He just opened the door and that is all.”

Fiddler, from Sandy Lake First Nation, is an alcoholic who lives on the streets in this town about 300 kilometres north of Kenora, Ont.

Venessa Keesick saw Fiddler walking down the highway that night, making his way back to town. She asked Fiddler what happened and then filed a complaint with the OPP.

“(Fiddler) told me he had been drinking. He got picked up. He thought he was going to jail to sleep it off, but no, they turned down the highway and kept going and going,” said Keesick, in an interview. “He did say that he did distinguish the officer because he had an accent.”

The complaint seems to be substantiated by the officer’s suspension.

“The OPP is conducting an internal investigation into the release of a person in custody bya  member of the Red Lake OPP detachment,” said a statement from the OPP. “A member of the Red Lake OPP detachment has been suspended from durty.”

Keesick said she wasn’t surprised by Fiddler’s story of a starlight tour.

“It’s happened before, but years ago to my friend and I’ve heard it happen before, but it’s pretty close to home because I used to work with the guy,” she said.

Keesick got to know Fiddler at Red Lake’s emergency shelter.

Sandy Middleton, the manager at the shelter, said he’s heard the same thing.

“I’ve heard of it happening before, but it’s substantiated,” said Middleton.

Middleton’s work with the homeless at the shelter gives him a good perspective of their daily struggles. He hopes this isn’t one more hardship added to Fiddler’s already full plate.

“I think, if it did happen, it shouldn’t. These are people that really don’t have the acumen to look after themselves that you or i may. They depend on others to do that for them,” he said.

Keesick says that’s why she filed the complaint, because she knew Fiddler wouldn’t.

“Most of these people don’t have a voice. They keep quiet about bad things that happen,” she said.

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