After an emergency debate in Parliament on Monday about the police killings of six Indigenous people over a two-week period, NDP MPs said the time for talk is over.
Nunavut MP Lori Idlaut said she believes the discussions have presented some constructive ideas, such as improving de-escalation training for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and increasing cultural competency, and now the government must act.
“We need the government to immediately submit a plan outlining how it will implement MMIWG’s calls for justice and the TRC’s calls for action,” Idlaut said.
The final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2019 resulted in 231 calls for justice to address the root causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls. CBC News reported that only two of the calls for justice have been completed.
Similarly, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its report in 2015 and of its 94 calls to action, 18 were about justice, including increasing funding for Indigenous healing lodges, reducing the overcrowding of Indigenous people in prisons and recognising Indigenous legal systems.
So far, only one inquiry has been completed: the implementation of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“We don’t need more promises. We don’t need more studies. We don’t need more reports or studies. We need action to save Indigenous lives,” Idlaudt said.
She also criticised the federal government for taking years to introduce legislation despite making promises such as funding for Indigenous policing.
“By making that promise, by bringing hope, [up] “When you have an infringement of Indigenous rights during an election, it really hits home for people voting and then seeing disappointment after disappointment,” she said.
Government and leadership response
“Time and again we have witnessed the consequences of law enforcement failing to employ de-escalation techniques and culturally sensitive practices,” Chief Cindy Woodhouse-Nepinak of the Assembly of First Nations said in an emailed statement to CBC Indigenous.
The statement also called for police accountability and independent investigations into each of the deaths.
Minister of Crown and Indigenous Relations Garry Anandasagary said he was “outraged” by the death.
“There really is a need for accountability in each of these cases where people have died at the hands of police,” Anandasangaree said.
Asked how the government would respond to the deaths, Anandasangaree said that although the RCMP is Canada’s national police force, it contracts with provinces and territories to provide police services.
“I’m not making excuses here, but the reality of jurisdiction is that you can’t necessarily just say, ‘We need to look into it,'” he said.
Canada’s Minister of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu, called the deaths “unacceptable.”
Hajdu said the situation shows the need to help people before they become “very distressed and upset and end up in conflict with police.”
“It’s very difficult to help someone in their 20s who has been deeply affected by trauma, poverty, neglect and all the factors that can cause suffering,” she added.
To break the cycle of poverty, Hajdu said the government was working to improve Indigenous people’s access to health care and clean water, as well as address systemic racism.