Sask. police failed to properly investigate her brother's assault. She did instead

When an RCMP officer found Chris Hawkins bound with zip ties, beaten and bloody on a Saskatchewan farmyard, he didn't investigate the alleged assault, according to an RCMP report. Instead, the officer arrested Hawkins for break and enter.

It wasn't until Hawkins' sister spent months asking questions and investigating the attack herself — even obtaining video from the scene and leading police to it — that charges were laid against the alleged assailants.

"Part of my healing process in this grief was making sure his voice was heard and finding out the truth," Shanda Tansowny, a nurse living in Calgary, said.

An RCMP analysis of the investigation found two men "viciously and unnecessarily" assaulted Hawkins, 45, after they saw him entering their rural property — owned by one of the alleged assailants — near Melfort, Sask., on Aug. 21, 2022.

It also found faults with the first responding officer's investigation, including not corroborating the property owners' claims and not calling an ambulance for the seriously injured Hawkins, instead putting him in his police cruiser.

Hawkins was taken to Melfort Hospital and then airlifted to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon. He was treated and released on Sept. 16, but then readmitted to Melfort Hospital a few days later, according to his sister. He died on Sept. 26.

The Saskatchewan Coroners Service says there is no evidence trauma contributed to his death.

After Hawkins' death, Tansowny set out to find the truth — whether it was learning that her brother had done something wrong or if he was wronged.

When Tansowny sought answers from the Melfort RCMP about her brother's attack, she was told the men accused of beating her sibling couldn't be charged because her brother had since died — she was devastated, but would later learn it wasn't true.

What she was hearing from officers didn't add up and, unsatisfied with their investigation, she spent weeks looking deeper and later filed a complaint with the Civilian Review Complaints Commission.

The CRCC is an independent agency that handles complaints about RCMP members' conduct.

For three months, she spent nearly every day making calls, speaking with people in the community and RCMP, she said.

"I went to the next step and I asked for the next person involved until I got answers that made sense," she said.

People in the community told Tansowny about a video of the incident. She followed the thread until finally someone in the community called to let her know where she could get the video, making it possible for her to guide police to it in November.