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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 60

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 60 - Apr/28/22
Mr. Alistair MacGregor (Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, NDP)
  • Apr/28/22 6:40:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise, as the New Democratic critic for public safety, to follow up on a question I asked the minister on December 10 of last year. That question was following an important report that was tabled in the 43rd Parliament on systemic racism in policing in Canada. I gave a very clear question to the minister at that time, when I asked him directly if he and his department would “implement the recommendations so that the RCMP could better serve all of our communities.” His answer was that he was “going to continue to work with the RCMP to ensure that they provide top, world-class law enforcement right across the country so that we can have public safety for all Canadians.” Unfortunately, that is a little light on details, and I sincerely hope that the parliamentary secretary tonight can provide some clarification and more detail on exactly what the government is hoping to do. Before I get into the details, I think it is important to really provide a basis for why this report and its recommendations were so important, and I am going to quote from the report: Given the pervasive nature of systemic racism in policing in Canada, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security...has concluded that a transformative national effort is required to ensure that all Indigenous, Black and other racialized people in Canada are not subject to the discrimination and injustice that is inherent in the system as it exists today. During the study, the committee acknowledged from witnesses, and they had a very broad cross-section of witnesses, a resounding acknowledgement of the reality of systemic racism in policing in Canada. The committee was told that accountability, oversight and transparency are critical to restoring trust with indigenous and racialized communities that are subject to systemic racism. When we are talking about systemic racism, the committee provided a helpful quote from Senator Murray Sinclair. He said: Systemic racism is when the system itself is based upon and founded upon racist beliefs and philosophies and thinking and has put in place policies and practices that literally force even the non-racists to act in a racist way. I want to say this, because my communities in Cowichan—Malahat—Langford are entirely policed by the RCMP, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what those frontline officers do in our communities. They are often the first on the scene and they are dealing with the opioid crisis, but we cannot step away from the fact that the RCMP itself, as a force and as a wider entity across Canada, is in need of reform. I want to hear from the parliamentary secretary, because she was a member of the committee that produced that report, so she is very familiar with the witness testimony and the deliberations the committee went through. There are very specific recommendations in that report that could be instituted through legislative reform of the RCMP Act. For example, there is recommendation 1, which really tackles the mandate, independence and efficacy of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission. This recommends making sure it has the ability to refer cases or recommend that criminal charges be laid, creating statutory timelines for responses from the RCMP, requiring the RCMP commissioner to annually report to the minister on steps taken to implement CRCC recommendations, and tabling that report to Parliament. In closing, the recommendations 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 are all there for the government to follow up on, and I would like to have a clear answer from the parliamentary secretary on when her government is going to implement those recommendations.
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Context: House Hansard - 60 - Apr/28/22
Mr. Alistair MacGregor
  • Apr/28/22 6:48:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I, like the parliamentary secretary, look forward to seeing the government's responses to all of those recommendations tabled in the near future. One of the main things we can do here in the Parliament of Canada, as a legislative body, is that we can tackle reforms to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act. I have asked the Library of Parliament to take the specific recommendations that were in that report, the ones that deal with reforming the RCMP act. I have asked the Library of Parliament to show me what those reforms and amendments would look like. The only question is whether it is going to be up to me as a private member to introduce that as a private member's bill. Can I ask the government to take the lead on this and actually introduce a government bill to take the reforms that are necessary on that act?
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