N.B. First Nation wants RCMP ‘held accountable’ after officer cleared in man’s death​on April 4, 2025 at 9:09 pm

Elisopogtog First Nation community members say they’re heartbroken and angry after a police watchdog agency found no grounds for criminal charges against an RCMP officer who shot and killed a man last year during a wellness check.

Steven “Iggy” Dedam’s death sent shockwaves through the New Brunswick community last fall.

In a decision released Thursday, the Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) found that the RCMP officer did not break the law.

Elsipogtog Band Councillor Teagan Copage says the community is upset with that finding.

“I want them held accountable because as long as they keep getting away with this, they’re going to keep killing our people,” said Copage.

The two officers had responded to a call on Sept. 8, 2024, about a man with weapons who wanted to take his own life.

The report, which was written by director Erin E. Nauss, said that the officer had used “reasonable force” against the man, who was holding three axes in his hands and was a threat.

The report details how the man was intoxicated and threw an axe at officers and others in the home.

After a taser failed to subdue him, he was attempting to throw a second axe when an officer fatally shot him.

Residents question why the RCMP did not immediately contact Indige-Watch, a local non-enforcement unit, to aid in de-escalation when they received the 911 call.

“We do have a procedure in place where — especially things like a wellness check — Indige-Watch would have to be called and arrive on scene, because of the connection that they have with the community, knowing each other,” said community member, Amber Francis.

“I feel like the police officers are always afraid dealing with our people.”

According to the SiRT report, the RCMP called Indige-Watch after Dedam was shot to assist with the crowd, as there were other people in the home at the time of the incident.

An officer quoted in the report said he had he had used Indige-Watch in the past to talk to people and help calm them down, but stated he would not bring them “to a call like this one due to safety reasons. ”

The SiRT report stated that the watchdog agency had “conversations” with current and past directors of Indige-Watch, who indicated that they would not respond to a call “like the situation in question when a person has a weapon.”

No one at Indige-Watch was made available for comment on Friday.

In a statement released on Sept. 9, 2024 — the day after the incident — Indige-Watch said they had made it clear to the RCMP “they want to be involved in nearly every aspect of RCMP calls that relate to our people who are in distress.”

The statement also read that the failure to communicate with their team when they arrived at Dedam’s home “was not in the good spirit of working collaboratively.”

For now, community members say they feel uneasy.

“I don’t know if they’re going to do that to me if I get a wellness check,” said Donovan Levi

“I don’t know if I’ll be in danger. We need our own people to look after us because we know each other as family and can talk each other down.”

— with a file from The Canadian Press