NORTH BATTLEFORD – Adam Lesmeister, 46, was sentenced in North Battleford Provincial Court Monday to a five-month conditional sentence [CSO], with the initial 75 days under house arrest. He will also be placed on 18-months of probation after his CSO.
Lesmeister had pleaded guilty earlier this month to assault causing bodily harm against an Indigenous man in an unprovoked attack July 17, 2022, in the yard of a home owned by lawyer Eleanore Sunchild in Battleford. Sunchild posted the video online and the video had gone viral and sparked outrage across the province.
"This matter is clearly an act of vigilante justice," ruled Judge Stephen Kritzer Monday in North Battleford Provincial Court, adding that there’s no evidence the assault was racially motivated.
Outside of the courthouse after sentencing, Sunchild praised Judge Kritzer’s ruling that Lesmeister’s actions were an act of vigilantism, she disagreed, however, that the assault wasn’t racially motivated.
“Well, as a lawyer, I know that that sentencing was within the range and I think that it sent the message to people that vigilante justice is wrong, and you can't take justice into your own hands,” Sunchild told SASKTODAY.ca.
“That's what I've always said since Colten Bushie was killed and those are the words that I stand by, ‘vigilante justice is wrong and people, especially when it when it's race based.’ Even though the judge didn't have any evidence that it was race-based, in my opinion, it was and race-based vigilante justice kills and it can't be accepted. It can't be condoned. The racism in our community needs to stop and I hope that this message was sent that loud and clear to this entire province.”
The assault
Court heard that Lesmeister “sucker punched” Tootoosis and after he had fallen to the ground, Lesmeister grabbed him by the hair and put a knee to his head. Court heard that Tootoosis had a broken nose and injuries to his ears, head, teeth, upper lip, and eyes.
The assault was witnessed by Tootoosis’ six-year-old daughter.
Judge Kritzer told Lesmeister that what he did to Tootoosis would no way meet any punishment the courts would hand out.
“The courts have to be clear,” said Judge Kritzer. “We do not condone the public taking the law into their own hands.”
Defence counsel Randy Kirkham told the court previously that Lesmeister had returned home from the lake and was in the process of taking items into the house when someone stole a duffle bag from his truck. He called the police to report the theft and his wife used the find my iPhone app to locate the cell phone in the stolen bag. The bag was eventually located in the Sunchild’s backyard. There was no suggestion that anyone at Sunchild's home was involved in the theft of the bag that ended up in their backyard, court heard.
The police had advised Lesmeister they weren’t coming and he became upset and frustrated. The cell phone and bag were recovered but Lesmeister’s pants with his house, trailer, toolbox and shop keys weren’t.
Adam Lesmeister, 46, was also ordered to pay Colby Tootoosis $2,500 while he is serving his five-month CSO and $7,500 while on probation. He also ordered him to make a $1,000 donation to a charity chosen by Tootoosis.
Judge backtracks on previous comments
During Lesmeister’s sentencing hearing on May 5, Judge Kritzer had said that he was encouraged by reconciliation efforts he sees in Lloydminster and Onion Lake Cree Nation but then comes to the Battlefords and “see cases like this and I know we are not all the way there.”
On Monday, Judge Krtizer said he wanted to clarify that he didn’t intend to imply that Lloydminster and Onion Lake are better than the Battlefords when it comes to reconciliation efforts. He said he meant to say that the Lesmeister case reminds him that there are issues in all of the communities and there’s still work that needs to be done.
He said he meant to say this case, “makes it graphically apparent that we have to do better.”
Sunchild, however, said she believes racism is more pronounced in the Battlefords than other regions of Saskatchewan.
“It is because we have the colonial history here in the Battlefords,” she told reporters outside of the courthouse. “This is where Fort Battleford was and this is where colonialism started, and some of the people sadly [still] have the same attitudes.”
During Lesmeister’s sentencing, Judge Kritzer gave Sunchild an opportunity to speak. She told the court that having acted as the lawyer for Colten Boushie’s family during the Gerald Stanley trial, she sees that incident and trial as being a turning point in the Battlefords with the racism against Indigenous becoming more pronounced. Boushie was shot and killed by Biggar area farmer Gerald Stanley in 2018. Stanley was acquitted.
“There was so much racism directed at Indigenous people [during the trial] and it has carried on. This is the historical point of colonialism.”
Sunchild pointed out that it has only been since the 60s that the Indigenous and settlers started to mingle.
“The racism that existed at colonialism is still here. North Battleford is very much still of that mindset.
“I want our people to walk freely on our land, in my yard, without fear,” she added. “There has been an underestimating of what treaties were meant. We were meant to live in peace and harmony on this land.”
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Story corrected to say Lesmeister was ordered to pay an additional $7,500, besides the $2,500.
