ROCKWOOD – Nathaniel Schofield was honoured outside the OPP station in Rockwood on Aug. 4 during a memorial organized by his mother Faye Dzikewich.
About 50 people, mostly friends and family of Schofield and Dzikewich, gathered across the street from the OPP’s South Wellington Operations Centre to express solidarity with the family and frustration about what they see as a lack of clarity and accountability surrounding Schofield’s death.
Schofield died in OPP custody on July 10, after spending a night at the station in Rockwood.
“His family deserves answers – they deserve the truth,” said close family friend Debbie Parks. “What happened to Nathaniel?
“I’ve known Nat since he was a knee-high little grasshopper,” she added, and “he was always a great kid.
“He was a loving father and a loving son … he had a smile that would light up the room.
“We just want answers. Nat’s not here, so we are going to be his voice until we find out what happened. There’s too much shady stuff going on.”
Family friend Cathy Aitcheson said she feels hurt and angry, and hopes Schofield is resting in peace.
“I know police have a hard job to do,” she said. “But … how is there a dead man here? How? I want to know the truth.”
From left, Debbie Parks, Cathy Aitcheson and Gaynor Fletcher are three of the people who stood outside of the OPP station in Rockwood on Aug. 4 to show support for Nathaniel Schofield. “We are looking for the truth,” Aitcheson told the Advertiser. Parks said Schofield “was always a great kid. He didn’t deserve this.” Fletcher said she’s shocked that Schofield’s mother still doesn’t have answers about how he died.
Family friend Gaynor Fletcher said “you just can’t meet a nicer person and better mother than Faye.
“I’m still shocked every time I hear she still doesn’t have an answer to how her son died.
“Imagine every night, alone in bed, the emotions you go through with grief and anger. I just want to be able to do something to help her. But there’s nothing you can do – the worst has happened.”
No OPP officers attended the memorial or approached the group on Sunday evening, and the OPP did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
A spokesperson from the Ontario Provincial Police Association told the Advertiser the union offered “condolences to all who knew and loved Mr. Schofield,” but stressed “rumour and innuendo of blame and fault will do nothing to alleviate the pain and suffering of all involved.”
Davin Charney, a lawyer representing Dzikewich, specializes in police accountability and criminal law.
At the memorial he described seeing, “over and over … an absolute wall of secrecy” around incidents involving possible police misconduct.
“It’s disturbing for families to be left in the dark, and treated so poorly by the SIU,” he said.
That, along with the lack of communication between police and families, “fuels mistrust in the institutions that are supposed to either protect us – the police – or to investigate the police.”
He said things work differently in the U.S., where police often release video footage from jail cells or body cams the day after an incident.
“They don’t do that here,” he said.
Memorial attendees included about fifty of Nathaniel Schofield and Faye Dzikewich’s family and friends, four members of the media, laywer Davin Charney, right, who is representing Dzikewich, and Robert Hutson, centre, who is a survivor of police brutality and a victim advocate.
SIU officials told the Advertiser they are reviewing video footage pertaining to Schofield’s case captured from inside the cells, but have not released that footage to the family or public.
Charney said at times families wait as long as seven years for clear answers.
“I think they think people will lose interest, or run out of money,” he said.
The SIU investigation is the first phase, and should be completed within four months and conclude with a determination “whether there are grounds to charge an official in relation to the incident under review.”
If the SIU does not find there are grounds to lay a charge, a public report summarizing the investigation and reasons for the decision will be publicly released.
If a charge is laid, it will be prosecuted by the ministry of the attorney general. Limited information will be released, “to protect the fair trial interests of that police officer and the community,” SIU officials state on its website.
Consequences for an officer facing charges are up to their employer’s discretion, officials note.
“I hope people here appreciate that this is a long game – not weeks, not months, but years,” Charney said.
But he added he is ready to work “to make sure this family is not waiting years to know what happened to Nathaniel.
“I think we are going to turn attention to the coroner’s office [next] to get pressure on them,” he said.
