‘Lives depend on it’: First Nations push back against delays on police funding

The lawyer representing the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario called Canada “utterly cowardly” for its request to delay a human rights hearing.

The Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario (IPCO) is asking Canada to withdraw its motion to adjourn an Ontario Human Rights Tribunal hearing that was scheduled to start on Jan. 6.

“Canada cannot delay this, lives depend on it,” said Anna Betty Achneepineskum, Deputy Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Ask Nation at an IPCO media conference on Thursday. “Not only the people that we serve but our officers.”

The IPCO has filed a human rights claim against the federal government alleging that decades of chronic underfunding of First Nations police services is having a profound negative impact on the safety of First Nations people and communities.

The issue is one of sovereignty and jurisdiction, said Anishnabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige. “They (Canada) will not allow First Nations to police themselves.”

Debassige said there have never been real negotiations. Talks about First Nations police funding have taken place “with a gun to our heads. ‘If you don’t sign this, you will not have policing.’”

“We see Canada again evoking delay and stall tactics,” she said, while Anishnabek people “live in a daily state of fear.”

According to Debassige, there are five Anishnabek Nation communities currently under a state of emergency relating to crime, drugs and policing. That includes Netmizaaggamig Nishnaabeg.

Chief Louis Kwissiwa said a lack of policing has led to the “unchecked presence of organized crime” in the First Nation and put his community “at risk of eradication.”

“The time for action is now,” he said. “I refuse to accept this for my people.”

““First Nations policing is purposely set up to fail,” said IPCO executive director Kai Liu.

The former chief of the Treaty Three Police Service (T3PS) said he could not help but notice the “discriminatory conditions” First Nations police officers work in when he moved to T3PS after serving with several municipal services.

As a municipal police chief, Liu said, the average response times to those 911 calls where lives could depend on police response was 4 to 7 minutes. With T3PS the average response times to those critical calls “was calculated in hours,” he said. “Because we did not have officers in every community served by Treaty Three.”

“Stop delaying and start taking responsibility,” said Liu. “How can reconciliation be achieved if Canada won’t give us our day in court?”

Julian Falconer, the lawyer representing the IPCO, said “It is utterly cowardly to continue these adjournment applications.

“Stop the technical gamesmanship. Stop ducking and allow First Nations to have their cases heard on the merits.

“It is crystal clear that lives are at risk here,” said Falconer. “We talk about policing, but it is the safety of community members. They’re as entitled to be safe as the people of Kingston, the people of Toronto, etc.”

Newswatch did not receive a response from Public Safety Canada, the ministry responsible for the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, before publication. – snnewswatch.com

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I am pretty sure that all of these norther reserve communities are not that big. Populations of a couple of thousand people, most of whom are related. I am sure that everyone knows everyone there.  I would think that in such a situation, residents must be aware of what is going on. Who is doing what.  They don’t need police to figure things out.

Why would people burn down a school or community centre?  Burn supplies meant for building new houses?   Why? These things are not seen in bigger cities. There is something wrong up there.

The problem with northern reserves is the isolation, the lack of jobs and lack of strong parenting. I also suspect a lot of abuse.  I believe that all issues with Indigenous crime, teen suicides and missing women all have their genesis with the community, the leaders of that community and family.   That is where a solution will be found. If you need police, then the community leaders and parents have failed.  Pouring more money into that situation isn’t going to change anything.