44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 16, 2024 11:00AM
- Sep/16/24 6:41:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member very sincerely for bringing this forward.
I agree with her wholeheartedly that in any solutions and in any work that the government is doing to support first nations, first nations, Inuit and Métis need to be equal partners at the table and the work needs to be guided by lived experience by first nations, Inuit and Métis people. I very much appreciate the member for putting that on the record and for sharing her story.
I would appreciate her perspective as well on first nations and Inuit policing. We know the Liberal government promised to legislate this as an essential service in 2020, and then again in 2022. To my knowledge, no legislation has been brought forward, despite the former minister of public safety's stating on the record that he was working around the clock. That was in 2022. Clearly there has been a failure to deliver on these promises.
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- Sep/16/24 6:44:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada prides itself on being a nation that does not have the death penalty. Part of our justice is understanding that people have the ability to have their day in court, and yet we have a situation where six people have been murdered in an extrajudicial way.
Could the hon. member comment on what impunity looks like in policing when there is a lack of accountability for what are essentially extrajudicial murders of indigenous people?
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- Sep/16/24 7:16:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her remarks, as well as for her remarks in response to another member's questions.
She mentioned that progress has been made. Unfortunately, we are seeing that in first nations and Inuit communities, the fact is that crime has gone up significantly in the last number of years. Perhaps she could specify where the progress is being made, specifically in the lives of indigenous people in terms of crime, violence against women and others.
The member did go on at length in her remarks about program funding. While I do appreciate the government announcing that funding, a recent Auditor General report gave a quite scathing analysis of what follows after big announcements of big amounts of money. In fact, the Auditor General found that, in essence, the Liberal government was not following where the money went. It was not following if there were any good outcomes. It could not even provide a list of community agreements with first nations communities that had signed on. In particular, I am talking about the first nations and Inuit policing program. The report is quite extensive.
While I do appreciate that announcing funding is part of the process of governance, also part of the process of governance is ensuring there is follow-through. In this case we are talking about nearly $1 billion of funding over the last number of years.
I would like to hear where this progress is being made, and why it is that the Liberal government was not really tracking or following through on nearly $1 billion of program funding in this regard.
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- Sep/16/24 7:29:50 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I would like to thank the member for using words like “tangible” and for talking about things we need to see happening to help address some of the issues. As I mentioned in my speech, I had done an intervention with the UCCM Anishnaabe Police in northern Ontario because the federal government was not meeting its obligations to ensure that this first nations policing agency was getting the core funding it needed or making sure it had the resources to deal with special teams.
Does the member agree that a tangible solution is to make sure that if the RCMP is getting core funding to do its law enforcement, then the core funding should also be available to first nations law enforcement and Inuit law enforcement so that they are able to do it with the same resources they should be able to deliver on, which they have not been able to because the federal government was not negotiating in good faith with the law enforcement in northern Ontario? As well, does he agree that a tangible solution is to make sure those first nations policing authorities get the same core funding so that they can help protect their first nations and Inuit communities?
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- Sep/16/24 8:45:31 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, former public safety minister Ralph Goodale said to me one time that police officers need as much training in human rights as they do in criminal justice. The RCMP is working with the University of Regina and working to enhance training. We need to make police services safe places for women, for indigenous people and for racialized people to be able to come in and change the culture within the service. There needs to be better training; we also need to do a better job of recruiting a diverse base. Further, we need to look at whether the RCMP is the right service to be responding in indigenous communities and whether the indigenous communities should be designing their own policing model; we need to leave that up to each individual community.
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- Sep/16/24 9:03:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as I rise to speak at this emergency debate, I would like to take a moment to recognize the six indigenous people who lost their lives on whom this debate centres, specifically Steven Dedam, Danny Knife, Hoss Lightning, Jack Piche, Tammy Bateman and Jason West, and to acknowledge the trauma and loss that their families, friends and communities are suffering at this time.
Indigenous communities have faced some systemic injustices within the realm of law enforcement. The history of indigenous policing in Canada is fraught with challenges marked by a legacy of colonialism, discrimination and mistrust. Indigenous peoples have a unique cultural, social and historical context that must be recognized and respected in the realm of policing.
As we have witnessed time and time again, traditional methods of law enforcement often fail to adequately address the needs and values of indigenous communities. As a result, there is a pressing need for a paradigm shift in policing practices. I would like to focus a lot of my intervention tonight on the lack of commitment this government has toward community policing in northern, rural and remote areas, and its failure to support the first nations and Inuit policing program in the country.
For the information of those at home, and perhaps for some of my colleagues here in this House, Public Safety Canada manages and oversees the first nations and Inuit policing program, which was established in 1991. Under this program, policing services are provided either by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, through community tripartite agreements negotiated by the federal government, provinces and/or territories and indigenous communities, or by communities' own police services under self-administered agreements.
Efforts toward indigenous policing must be guided by principles of reconciliation, cultural sensitivity and community empowerment. Part of the problem has been an Ottawa-knows-best paternalistic approach to the safety needs of indigenous people and indigenous communities. It is essential to engage indigenous communities in the design and implementation of policing strategies, ensuring that their voices are indeed heard and their perspectives valued, meaning a true partnership.
For too long, indigenous communities have borne the brunt of systemic injustices, including disproportionately high rates of crime and victimization. One of the most pressing types of criminality facing indigenous people on reserves is violence: domestic violence, sexual assault and homicide. Indigenous women are disproportionately affected by that violence, with rates of homicide and missing persons cases far exceeding national averages. These alarming statistics underscore the urgent need for targeted interventions, police and support services to address the underlying factors contributing to violence within indigenous communities.
Substance abuse and addiction are also significant challenges facing first nations people on reserve, contributing to a range of criminal behaviours including drug trafficking, poverty and crime. Intergenerational trauma and socio-economic disparities have contributed to high rates of substance abuse among indigenous populations. Addressing these underlying factors requires holistic, culturally sensitive approaches that prioritize healing, rehabilitation and community supports.
Overall, the Liberal government's drug policies have been catastrophic, with over 42,000 Canadians dying from drug overdoses. In British Columbia, where this Prime Minister carried out his hard drugs experiment, there has been a nearly 400% increase in overdose deaths. The Liberal Minister of Mental Health still refuses to acknowledge that the Liberals' dangerous policy was indeed a failure.
We must not only get tough on crime, especially when it comes to repeat violent offenders, but we must address the socio-economic disparities between non-indigenous and indigenous people.
Socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment and inadequate housing contribute to the vulnerability of indigenous people to involvement in criminal activity. Limited economic opportunities coupled with social isolation and a lack of access to essential service exacerbate the risk factors for criminal behaviour. Investing in education, economic development and infrastructure on reserves is crucial to addressing these systemic inequalities and creating opportunities for positive change within indigenous communities. These are all factors that a future Conservative government, with guidance from indigenous stakeholders, must tackle if we are to end the tragedies like the ones we continue to experience and to improve community safety and quality of life for indigenous men, women and children.
The challenges facing indigenous policing in Canada are multi-faceted and deeply rooted, from inadequate resources to entrenched biases, and these challenges continue to undermine safety, trust and the well-being of indigenous communities. Indigenous police services often face jurisdictional and legal complexities that impede their ability to fulfill their mandate effectively. The overlapping jurisdiction between federal, provincial and indigenous communities often creates confusion and delays in responding to issues on indigenous territories. One of the common complaints I hear is that provincial and federal police services will not enforce community bylaws. Clear protocols and agreements must be established to ensure seamless coordination and co-operation among all stakeholders in the justice system.
One of the foremost challenges is the chronic underfunding of indigenous police services. Many indigenous police services operate with limited resources, hindering their ability to adequately respond to emergencies, investigate crimes and provide essential services to their communities. This funding gap not only compromises public safety but also perpetuates inequalities in access to justice for indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples deserve to feel safe in their communities. It is crucial that indigenous police services have the same powers as non-indigenous police services and have the proper and adequate resources to do the job they are expected to do, especially when it comes to the funding model, often done on a year-to-year basis. This makes it almost impossible for these police services to continue to plan, recruit and continue with officers who have experience.
Indigenous policing resources are stretched thin and face discrimination in Ottawa. In meetings with indigenous police services across the country, I have heard harsh criticism for the current model. Public Safety Canada would not fund specialized units like domestic assault, major crime, homicide or canine units, and it took a court case in June 2023 to declare that it was discriminatory and to throw those conditions out of the PSC agreements.
Thirty-eight per cent of indigenous police officers do not have backup while patrolling their communities. There are too few officers to keep up with the growing gang problems on reserves. Outside of Ontario, first nations' police officers do not have pensions, benefits and access to professional development. Indigenous officers make 25% less in salary than their non-indigenous colleagues.
In 2023, the Treaty Three Police Service, the Anishinabek Police Services, and the United Chiefs and Councils of Manitoulin Anishnaabe Police had to take the government to court over discriminatory terms and conditions in their service agreements. Together, these first nations police organizations serve 45 first nations communities and around 30,000 people across northern Ontario, and they had to operate on a line of credit while the government dithered, putting the communities and people at risk.
In 2022, after the mass killing at James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, the Prime Minister promised to work toward making indigenous policing an essential service in Canada. However, here we are now, nearly three years later, with, sadly, no changes. In 2020, the Liberals promised to bring forward legislation to declare first nations and Inuit police services an essential service, and yet, still nothing. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls for justice, section 5.4, called for immediate and dramatic transformation of indigenous policing, including civilian oversight bodies to audit and investigate claims of police misconduct. That was almost six years ago and still counting.
In 2024, the Auditor General's office released a damning report on the status of first nations and Inuit policing in Canada. The first nations and Inuit policing program is a cost-sharing program. About 52% of its funding comes from the federal government and 48% comes from the provinces or territories.
The Office of the Auditor General found several glaring issues with Public Safety Canada's management of the program. Despite funding increased to this program, the Office of the Auditor General found that $13 million of the funds earmarked for the 2022-23 fiscal year went unspent. As of October 2023, Public Safety Canada expected that over $45 million in program funding would be left undistributed for that fiscal year.
The OAG also found that Public Safety Canada had poorly managed the program. Specifically, it found that Public Safety Canada had poor fiscal management oversight, had limited expansion of the program despite additional funding, lacked an approach to support equitable funding decisions, lacked consistent engagement and partnership with communities, and lacked the information to measure the program's effectiveness.
Furthermore, the RCMP did not consistently deliver on its responsibilities under that program. Specifically, the RCMP had an insufficient number of officers in dedicated communities, no requirement for culturally specific training to understand the culture of the community being served, inconsistent implementation and monitoring of whether policing services promote partnership with communities, and no information on program effectiveness.
I should note that the RCMP is not party to community tripartite agreements. Public Safety Canada signs these agreements with the provinces and territories, and between first nations or Inuit communities, without bothering to confirm that the RCMP actually has the ability to meet the terms of the agreement. If that does not define a failed Ottawa-knows-best approach, I am not sure what does.
In fact, this past April, at an indigenous and northern affairs committee hearing, Public Safety Canada indicated that it is currently in the process of co-developing federal legislation intended to recognize first nations policing as an essential service. During her testimony before the committee, one of the directors of the Office of the Auditor General noted that the new legislation is intended to apply only to self-administered agreements and not to community tripartite agreements.
This means that the communities, under tripartite agreements, that are policed by the RCMP and municipal police forces would not be regarded as essential, which is the key to this whole issue. For context, there are only 36 self-administered police agreements in Canada. That would leave the vast majority of first nations and Inuit communities without the essential designation for police services.
Historical trauma and intergenerational mistrust continue to cast a shadow over indigenous communities and the RCMP, including, where applicable, municipal police relations. The legacy of colonialism, forced assimilation and residential schools has left deep scars on indigenous communities, contributing to a profound mistrust of authority figures, including the police. Rebuilding trust and repairing these relationships will require genuine efforts at reconciliation, acknowledgement of past wrongs and meaningful engagement with indigenous communities in the development of policing policies and practices.
In addition, a future government plan on indigenous policing must prioritize the recruitment, training and retention of indigenous officers. Representation matters. It matters deeply in law enforcement. Indigenous peoples deserve to see themselves reflected in the institutions that serve and protect their communities.
Additionally, indigenous policing initiatives should prioritize restorative justice approaches, with an emphasis on healing, rehabilitation and community cohesion over punitive measures. Traditional indigenous justice practices offer valuable insights into resolving conflicts and restoring harmony within communities. This does not mean there are not consequences for crime, but those consequences reflect historical and traditional indigenous community responses to those crimes. Where appropriate, these alternative justice incentives could have real and lasting positive outcomes for indigenous communities.
One of the key strengths of restorative justice lies in its emphasis on dialogue and relationship building. By bringing together victims, offenders and community members in a safe and supportive environment, restorative justice fosters empathy, understanding and mutual respect. Through open and honest communication, individuals can confront the harm done by those actions, take responsibility for their behaviour and work toward repairing the harm done.
Moreover, restorative justice practices have been shown to be effective in reducing crime rates and promoting long-term community safety, and we do that by addressing the root causes of crime and the needs of all affected parties. Restorative justice helps to break the cycle of violence and create a more just and comprehensive society.
As I conclude, I would like to leave us all with this, which I have said a few times in my speech. Many indigenous communities have a fraught history with external law enforcement agencies. It is marked with experiences of discrimination, violence and systemic racism. Indigenous-led policing helps to address these historical grievances by involving community members directly in the process of maintaining safety and order. This approach helps to rebuild trust, making it more likely that community members will engage positively with law enforcement and co-operate in matters of public safety.
Traditional law enforcement methods can sometimes fail to address the root causes within indigenous communities. Indigenous-led initiatives, on the other hand, can incorporate culturally relevant practices and community wisdom. This approach can lead to a more sustainable solution to crime and conflict, tailored to the specific needs and values of a community. When indigenous people can serve as police officers within their own communities, it empowers them to take that active role in shaping their own futures. This representation, as I said before, is absolutely crucial because it ensures that the policies and practices of law enforcement reflect the values and needs of indigenous peoples.
It also provides a role model for younger generations, inspiring them to envision and work toward leadership roles in their own communities. Their cultural competence allows them to navigate complex social dynamics with a sensitivity that external officers might lack. For example, indigenous officers are more likely to understand and honour traditional practices and customs, which can be crucial in resolving conflicts and engaging with community members in a respectful manner. This cultural insight prevents misunderstandings and fosters a policing approach that is both empathetic and effective.
In conclusion, acknowledging the historic injustices faced by indigenous peoples is essential for building a more equitable society. In investing in these indigenous-led police services, we would take concrete steps to address these injustices and contribute to the reconciliation process. This support demonstrates a commitment to repairing relationships and fostering understanding between indigenous communities and the broader societies. Indigenous policing in Canada is not merely a matter of policy; it is a moral imperative. It is a testament to our commitment to justice, equality and reconciliation. Together, let us work toward a future where indigenous policing reflects the values and aspirations of all.
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- Sep/16/24 9:24:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will try to answer as much of the member's question as I can. I wrote down notes. Hopefully I have it all.
As the critic for Crown-indigenous relations and indigenous services for the opposition, it is part of my job, my mandate, to develop policy that will be put into our next election platform. I note that some of the things I mentioned today were from previous policy documents that we had released in previous elections. They talk about giving more power to indigenous police services and essential services, about funding them correctly and about restorative justice practices. Something our party, myself and others on this side of the House are talking about today is the direction our party is moving in regarding indigenous justice and indigenous policing.
I mentioned funding, as well as essential services and ensuring that the “Ottawa knows best” approach is not the one we continue to lead by. It has to be grassroots-led and about listening to the voices that are telling us what their issues are. That goes to the justice piece of my speech when I was talking about how each individual community might have different visions of how they wish to run a justice system, whether it is through restorative justice, through their law enforcement and policing side or through indigenous police services. Perhaps they want other aspects of the law enforcement angle.
Giving power back to these individual communities is key, but to the member's point, as I talked about, it is about ensuring proper funding so that we do not have an unlevel playing field between indigenous and non-indigenous police services or even in the justice system in general.
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- Sep/16/24 9:26:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there was much in the hon. member's speech that I agreed with. When it comes to funding first nations policing, I would remind the hon. member that when the Harper government Conservatives were in power, first nations policing was grossly underfunded. One of the first things the public safety minister did was engage on that.
In 2018, $291 million was put into first nations policing, and in 2021, there was another $540 million. The hon. member talked about how not all of that money was spent, but he also talked about the importance of engaging with communities. I hope he would agree that these programs for first nations policing need to be led by indigenous peoples, as does the co-development of legislation. These are hard things to do that require hard work, and sometimes they require time.
I am wondering if the hon. member will commit that his party will support these additional funding investments and will ensure that first nations policing is co-developed with indigenous peoples and the Assembly of First Nations, not just dictated to them by the federal government.
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- Sep/16/24 9:27:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the crux of my speech was about how we need to level the playing field between indigenous police services and non-indigenous police services. During my speech, I mentioned the disparities in wages, benefits and training. Those are all pretty important things when talking about policing, and not only with recruitment but with retention. I mentioned the funding model and that many of these police services, like the ones in northern Ontario, were on year-to-year contracts. The deadline for their funding lapsed and they had to run police services on a line of credit. That was pretty troubling to the chief of police and members themselves. They were trying to police 30,000 people as indigenous police services, and they did not even know if their funding was going to continue. As for making it an essential service, I mentioned that a few times in my speech. My answer to the NDP talked about that as well.
I agree with the member that these things do take time, absolutely. In 2022, the Prime Minister promised to work toward making indigenous police services an essential service, but it is three years later and still nothing has happened. The Liberals have been in power for nine years. The Auditor General came out with a report that said some pretty important things needed to be addressed in addition to policing, and here we are talking about them because some tragedies have happened. We need to accelerate this conversation.
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- Sep/16/24 9:31:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the speech that my colleague from Ontario gave, and I thank him for the significant amount of work he has done with indigenous leaders and communities across this country.
I am wondering if he could share with this House some examples, even sometimes born out of the ashes of tragedy, where spaces or opportunities for reconciliation have come about and indigenous communities have seen relationships restored. Are there instances with indigenous police where productive relationships are built and where high-quality policing is able to support victims? I know that my colleague has had many conversations, both tough ones and a number of encouraging ones, on that.
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- Sep/16/24 9:48:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking my good colleague, the member for Nunavut, for requesting this emergency debate. I also want to give a shout-out to my good friend and colleague Kim Pate, on the Senate side, who has done tremendous work in this area as well.
This is a topic, as we know, that is often neglected by politicians, and quite frankly the media normalizes systemic violence against indigenous people. Police brutality against people of colour, particularly indigenous people and Black people, BIPOC people, is nothing new in this country. However, recently the extent of police violence against indigenous people has grown to such a shocking level that it cannot be ignored by our leaders.
Given that it is our duty to promote reconciliation, the federal government must end the ongoing legacy of settler violence that is being perpetrated through police brutality, and I want to give some examples of that. Between 2017 and 2020, an indigenous person in Canada was 10 times more likely to have been shot and killed by a police officer than a white person was. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association recently reported that while indigenous people make up 5.1% of people living in Canada, they represent 16.2% of people killed in police-involved deaths.
There is no centralized, updated data set that exists that tracks deaths and provides information about the person, location, implicated police service, type of force used and many other contextual details. Much of what we rely on to understand these cases are “official documents” like police oversight body and media releases that contain limited details and tell only a one-sided police narrative, which is something that has often been cited and complained about by the public in Winnipeg with its current independent investigation unit.
Researchers have also found that the use of lethal force by police was on the rise, especially since the start of the pandemic, between 2011 and 2022. Lethal force was 66.5% higher than in the previous decade, with indigenous and Black people being disproportionately impacted.
I share this because it is nothing new. In fact in the last two weeks, we witnessed six cases of police brutality resulting in the deaths of indigenous people. This included cases of unnecessary force in response to people undergoing things like mental health crises; negligence resulting in the death of an unhoused person, like what I witnessed in Winnipeg; a photo of an unsheltered woman being removed by six patrol officers for sleeping on a bench in Winnipeg; and the lethal force used against a 15 year old. To me, it is unconscionable that our society is treating people made most vulnerable by systems with violence rather than uplifting them and treating them as human beings.
I want to give my sympathies to the latest victims' families, and I want to say the victims' names. We must say their names, because they were human beings who were deserving of respect, dignity and human rights, something that was robbed from them and in turn hurt families and those who are left behind. They are Jack Piche, age 31; Hoss Lightning-Saddleback, age 15; Tammy Bateman, a woman in her 30s; Jason West, age 57; and Steven Dedam, age 33.
However, as I said, this is not anything new. In fact, in April 2020, in the city of Winnipeg, three indigenous people were killed in a span of 10 days: Eishia Hudson, age 16; Stewart Kevin Andrews, age 22; and Jason Collins, age 36.
In these cases, the Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba laid no criminal charges. It is a unit that has been criticized by the hon. former senator Murray Sinclair.
Today, just before coming to the debate, I spoke to the family of William Walter Ahmo, who was incarcerated in a provincial jail. The violence against indigenous people does not just happen on the streets with police; it also happens within our penitentiaries. On February 7, William Walter Ahmo had an emotional breakdown after a guard made a racist comment toward him.
Racism is so normalized in our justice system that indigenous people such as the Wet'suwet'en have to listen to racist comments from the RCMP. The Winnipeg city police said it was up to indigenous people to search for their loved ones in a landfill. It was up to us.
It could come from a current city councillor or the officer on guard in the prison making a racist comment to William, a young man struggling with mental health and dealing with intergenerational trauma, and he responded. Fourteen guards brought him down to get him under control, and as a result of excessive force, he lost his life.
This evening I asked his mother, “Can I share your words?” She said, “Do you know how it felt having to watch my son lose his life? It was like having an out-of-body experience, watching my son yell over and over and over again, 'I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe'.”
The chief medical examiner ruled it a homicide. The Court of King's Bench let the guards off.
This is a system that is broken, and the result of these persistent cuts and underfunding of vital social services fall the hardest on indigenous people. For example, Iggy Dedam was the third indigenous person in recent years to be shot and killed by police during a wellness check in New Brunswick. Had he been provided with the health care supports he needed, he probably would be alive today.
In the city of Winnipeg, Tammy Bateman was hit by a police cruiser driving through an encampment at Fort Rouge Park. Putting aside the gross negligence of the officer driving the cruiser, we again see the impacts that the housing crisis has had on indigenous people, many of whom lack a home they can find safety in.
During question period, I asked the Liberal government why the Liberal government is failing to honour its legal obligation to fund health services to first nations youth through Jordan's principle. According to Cindy Blackstock, there are between 40,000 and 80,000 Jordan's principle requests that Indigenous Services Canada has not processed or opened. When first nations children and youth are denied health services they desperately need, they are more likely to encounter police rather than health care professionals when undergoing a mental health crisis, and this is costing lives.
This is not another tragedy: This is elected officials willfully turning a blind eye on a system filled with systemic racism in policing and at all levels of the justice system.
As the late Cathy Merrick said when speaking about William Ahmo's case, “This justice system was not meant for us.” I want to honour the late Grand Chief Cathy Merrick this evening.
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- Sep/16/24 10:02:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to follow up on what my hon. colleague said, it is very clear what MMIWG call for justice 5.4 says. It does not say to maybe at some point look at indigenous policing. It says, “immediately and dramatically transform Indigenous policing”.
I am wondering whether, in her opinion, she thinks that in the nine years the Liberal government has been in power it has done enough to do that.
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- Sep/16/24 10:03:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my answer to that is certainly no, but if we look at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, there are not just calls to government; there are also calls to police.
There was a study at the status of women committee, and I asked a chief of police if he could name the calls for justice related to policing and he could not. The onus is on everybody. The Prime Minister has called what is going on with murdered and missing indigenous women and girls an ongoing genocide, yet we get incremental responses to deal with that ongoing genocide. That is how normalized systemic violence is to indigenous people.
We can make all these grand statements, but when we want people to ask, we are supposed to be happy with twopence. Meanwhile, our relatives are being killed by police almost on a weekly basis in this country, at least. That is unacceptable.
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- Sep/16/24 10:27:59 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, as a member of the indigenous and northern affairs committee, I would like to confirm that we have studied policing of indigenous peoples in Canada. There have been multiple reports already. We have great reports such as the MMIWG calls for justice as well as the TRC's calls to action. I agree with the member completely that it is time for action, not more reports or more recommendations. There are enough of those.
One of the tangible solutions, which we need to remind the House was offered, is for core funding to be given to indigenous policing. It is really quite unfortunate how, for example, it has become a part of a systemic racism that the RCMP is core funded. It does not need to negotiate to the same level as indigenous policing organizations, whereas it is that much more of a struggle for indigenous policing.
Does the member agree that that is part of the systemic racism that needs to be addressed so we see core funding being provided to indigenous peoples to police themselves?
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- Sep/16/24 10:29:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I use a reference quite often about action being where the rubber hits the road. It is about actually getting stuff done. It is interesting that my colleague, as a member of the indigenous and northern affairs committee, answered the parliamentary secretary's question. It is not time for more reports. I know there are the 94 calls to action from the TRC. I believe there are 231 calls for justice from the murdered and missing indigenous women inquiry. It is time to make sure that action happens when it comes to policing.
I will be the first to admit that I am not an expert on the models and whatnot that need to happen, but that is where indigenous communities need to be the ones that lead the conversation to ensure that they have what they need, whether it is funding, institutions or justice supports, to ensure that they are set up for success. I can also share that I have spoken to some indigenous leaders who have said this stuff has to be done right, and it has to be done right in partnership with those indigenous communities because there would be nothing worse than for a system to be brought in that is dictated from an office tower in a capital city that then ends up failing. Imagine the pain and the hurt of not only facing the challenges they face from historical institutions, but also not doing it right with an attempt to fix an institution. Members can imagine the trauma that would be associated with that.
To the member's exact point, we need to make sure that this is addressed in a way that actually gets the job done so that indigenous communities are able to be empowered in a way that makes sure that not only do these sorts of tragedies do not happen, but also that indigenous communities from coast to coast to coast are well served.
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- Sep/16/24 10:46:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague stressed the need for action, and we are aligned on this. There are countless reports and studies and calls for justice and calls to action. I am going to cite call for justice 5.4 from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. It is very clear in its language. It states:
...to immediately and dramatically transform Indigenous policing from its current state as a mere delegation to an exercise in self‐governance and self‐determination over policing. To do this, the federal government’s First Nations Policing Program must be replaced with a new legislative and funding framework....
It goes on. Here we are in 2024, after nine years of the current government. When will we actually see action on this call to justice?
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- Sep/16/24 11:26:21 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I have been listening to the debate and the questioning by the Liberals and I find it interesting that they are wanting to delay more action by asking questions about whether the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs should study indigenous policing. That, to me, is a very strong indication that this is just part of the systemic racism that indigenous peoples will continue to experience, because that system, that institution, is refusing to act.
I wonder if the member can respond to the Liberals trying to delay action by proposing more studies. What do we really need to do to make sure that we are saving indigenous peoples' lives?
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- Sep/16/24 11:39:10 p.m.
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Uqaqtittiji, I always appreciate what the member has to share as a fellow northerner. I think we have common experiences representing people who mostly live in rural and remote communities.
As I have been saying tonight, this issue to me is not just about investing more in first nations. There needs to be more than that. I think part of the problem with each successive government that we have seen is that they have made a lot of promises. Both Conservatives and Liberals have made so many promises to indigenous peoples, and so many promises have been broken. I wonder if the member can share with us a Liberal promise that was made in 2020 by the Prime Minister to introduce a first nations policing law. We have not seen it yet. We are now in 2024.
I wonder if the member can share with us when this party plans to finally introduce a first nations policing law so that indigenous peoples can do their own job to protect themselves.
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- Sep/16/24 11:40:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I know this is an area to which the Prime Minister and our government are fully committed. Clearly, it is a process that takes a long time to accomplish. Perhaps, when we see the need, it is too long in the implementation. I know it is something that our minister and our parliamentary secretary, who spoke earlier, are very committed to. Supporting community-based programs that play an intermediate role of liaison and what I call social policing is also critical as we look for the full cadre of needs in community safety and indigenous policing.
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- Sep/16/24 11:41:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on that question, recognizing that the member for Yukon has such a track record here of working with others in the best interest of his community and those he is looking to serve. To follow up on the question from the member for Nunavut from earlier, could he talk about what other MPs can do to support efforts to move more quickly toward the implementation of indigenous policing, in the way that the member for Nunavut referred to?
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