We must demand greater accountability from police

OTTAWA—This is your regular six-month public service announcement that the RCMP lacks accountability. The Yellowknife Women’s Society in the Northwest Territories released its report on the RCMP’s treatment of homeless Indigenous women on April 11, titled Over-policed & under-protected: Recommendations to improve the relationship between unhoused Indigenous women and the RCMP in Yellowknife. Virtually every single Indigenous woman interviewed had either experienced racism and/or physical abuse at the hands of the RCMP, or knew somebody who did: “One of the most prevalent and consistent themes from the conversations was being dehumanized: being met with apathy and indifference from police because of being Indigenous and unhoused. Participants felt that they are seen as 'less than' non-Indigenous Yellowknife residents. This bias translates into their problems being taken less seriously, their experiences being treated as less credible, and their bodies being treated with less care.” This report demands mandatory training for officers, including in cultural competency; the recruitment of Indigenous officers; and effective, independent civilian oversight, among others. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission is the so-called independent agency which receives complaints about RCMP officers. If you make a complaint about an officer—let’s say it’s about racism, or abuse of power, or something that might just risk your life—this little agency sends the complaint to the RCMP to investigate and report back to the complainant. Now, is anybody surprised that so little changes in the RCMP? Kent Roach from the University of Toronto is an expert in police accountability, having written the 2022 book Canadian Policing: Why and How it Must Change. Roach said policing in Canada is in a governance deficit—that is, nobody is really watching over it—which leaves us lowly citizens to sue police in the event of their wrongdoing. Fighting it out in the courts is using only the language of law or breaking it. But we want more from police than just adhering to the law. We want excellent service delivery to all, including Indigenous Peoples. Roach wrote that we want police to be both legal and effective. He goes on to say that we can’t rely on independent oversight to punish all the wrong-doers in police forces. We also need them to self-regulate to be good humans and officers. This is where the training comes in, not just in use of force but in judgment, communication, de-escalation, and more. The RCMP training depot in Regina does the basic training for officers in 26 weeks. One can’t work in mental health or communications without at least a four-year degree or more. But one could finish RCMP training in less than six months, carry a 9mm handgun and use it on citizens, arrest people and more. It’s just delusional that anybody considers a six-month training program sufficient for the complexity of the job of policing. It’s time that we the people change some things, given that the RCMP is our child needing of discipline. In other words, civilian oversight and accountability of policing is an essential plank of any democracy. The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission needs to be rebuilt from scratch, with real authority. The training for policing needs to be rebuilt from scratch to cover the real knowledge, skills and aptitudes that we require from officers to do the work effectively, the work that we as taxpayers pay them to do. They report to us. If not, we’ll be back in again in six months having the same conversation. In the next six months there’s likely another 15-25 citizen deaths at the hands of police, some of which would be avoidable with better training and accountability. In the next six months, perhaps hundreds of Indigenous Peoples will endure racism by officers, all of which could be avoided with better training and accountability. If MPs felt the same fear that Indigenous Peoples do when they see an RCMP officer, maybe—just maybe—we’d see some urgency. Rose LeMay is Tlingit from the West Coast, and the CEO of the Indigenous Reconciliation Group. She writes twice a month about Indigenous inclusion and reconciliation. In Tlingit worldview, the stories are the knowledge system, sometimes told through myth and sometimes contradicting the myths told by others. But always with at least some truth. The Hill Times