The RCMP logo on the door of a police cruiser. Photo: APTN file
First Nations leaders in B.C. don’t trust the RCMP to re-investigate historical allegations that some Mounties in Prince George sexually abused vulnerable Indigenous girls.
So, in a letter to B.C. Premier David Eby, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino and federal Justice Minister David Lametti, two groups are demanding an external review.
“The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) and BC First Nations Justice Council (BCFNJC) are calling for a renewed Indigenous and civilian-led investigation, and pending criminal charges for officers involved,” the group said in a letter shared with APTN News.
“We are also calling for the interim report from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) – which found a failure by the RCMP to investigate these allegations – to be publicly released.”
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told APTN on Feb. 17 the force was conducting “a criminal investigaton” into the allegations.
READ MORE: Head of BC First Nations Justice Council says RCMP ‘covered up’ Prince George allegations
But the group comprised of top First Nations officials in B.C., including Regional Chief Terry Teegee of the Assembly of First Nations, was blunt in its assessment of the RCMP.
“This situation demonstrates failures on countless levels and complete negligence by the RCMP,” the letter said.
“The discredited RCMP organization must be completely transformed so that it stops perpetuating harm against Indigenous peoples, especially women, girls and gender-diverse people. First Nations’ jurisdiction over matters of justice, policing and community safety must be affirmed.”
The allegations of sexual abuse were made against some Prince George Mounties by girls as young as 12 who were in the sex trade.
They resurfaced in recent media stories, including by APTN, of a damning investigation by the RCMP’s Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC).
The CRCC, an arm’s-length body independent of the RCMP, said it found fault with the way the force handled those initial and subsequent allegations involving some of the same officers.
It reviewed the actions as part of its investigation into a 2016 complaint by now-retired officer Garry Kerr, who said the force failed to act on information he provided from a source in 2011.
The CRCC agreed and told the RCMP to do better, but its interim and final reports were shared only with Kerr. APTN obtained the reports from another source.
The RCMP told the CRCC there was no evidence to support the allegations against its officers.
But First Nations leaders said in the letter they are “appalled and deeply disturbed that there are serious allegations of egregious and violent sexual abuse of Indigenous girls against RCMP officers in Prince George, BC, and that when these allegations were originally made in 2011 they were not investigated, but instead were covered up by authorities.
READ MORE: RCMP investigating historical sex abuse allegations against Prince George Mounties: Commissioner
“The findings of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP report are damning; concluding that no one was ever designated to lead an investigation, upholding what Indigenous women and frontline advocates have long decried – that the RCMP fail to protect Indigenous women and girls, perpetuate violence, and fail to meaningfully support victims’ families,” they wrote.
They praised Kerr and his source for trying to seek accountability from the force.
And they suggest a lack “of accountability and oversight is indicative of the insidious and systemic racist and misogynistic attitudes that have defined the RCMP since its inception as a colonial tool of violence against Indigenous peoples…It is fundamentally unfit, and unable to be accountable.”
APTN has reached out to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki asking for comment and will update the story when she responds. Copies of the letter were sent to her, the RCMP in Prince George, the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act in B.C., the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission and B.C. First Nations.
Meanwhile, the letter also pans Eby’s recent financial commitment of $230 million to the RCMP in B.C.
“The FNLC does not support the intensification of policing as a solution to creating safe communities for Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people,” it wrote. “Evidence further shows that stronger police presence does not equal safety for Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
“The RCMP is a failed and archaic institution, which has a long history of warfare against the Indigenous people. The issues cannot simply be fixed with provincial dollars, which could be better directed to Indigenous and grassroots organizations and First Nations to assert our jurisdiction and rights to self-determination to protect our peoples.”
