Black and Indigenous women gathered in Ottawa to demand action following a spate of police-involved deaths, including nine First Nations people who were killed in interactions with police in August and September.
The families, who often spoke through tears about their loved ones, urged the federal government to launch a national inquiry into the deaths.
Laura Holland, a Wet’suwet’en woman and the mother of Jared Lowndes, said it’s a state of emergency for Indigenous Peoples.
“We’re being killed on the streets, in our homes, everywhere, and no one is saying anything,” she said, adding that it has been “impossible” to get justice for the death of her son in 2021.
“When police kill one member of your family, they kill your whole family.”
She said there must be systemic change to the way police services operate.
The minister of Crown-Indigenous relations told APTN News in September that an inquiry wasn’t necessary.
“I think there’s definitely a need to have every one of these deaths investigated and answers found,” said Gary Anandasangaree. “We’ve had a number of public inquiries as you’re aware, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we have the calls for justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
“I think there are a number of things that need to happen in terms of law enforcement and in terms of policing, and I think those are things that we need to move expeditiously on not just at the federal level, but also different levels.”
NDP MP Blake Desjarlaise first called for an inquiry after the death of Jon Wells,42, a member of the Blood Tribe. He died on Sept. 17 after being confronted by Calgary police at a hotel in the city.
Police video footage showed that Wells was punched, Tasered and had his head covered with a spit hood. He was also given a sedative by paramedics. The investigation into his death continues.
“I think we need a national inquiry into police conduct,” said Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach). “Whether it’s municipal police forces or provincial police forces or national police force. We’re seeing this taking place in a way of a pattern, there’s a real pattern, we can identify, we can see it.”
A similar call for a police inquiry was raised last week as the Assembly of First Nations gathered in Calgary.
At that meeting, Blood Tribe chief Roy Fox spoke on behalf of Wells and his family.
Fox said he plans to take legal action against the three officers involved in his death.
“We have not received any kind of support or any kind of sign of empathy from the provincial government, nor the federal government,” Fox told those gathered.
MPs also had an emergency debate last month about the deaths, with NDP MP Lori Idlout calling it a “disturbing pattern.”
In a letter to House Speaker Greg Fergus asking for the debate, Idlout lambasted what she called a lack of media coverage of the issue and inaction by the government to pass legislation on First Nations policing.
“As parliamentarians, it is on us to show leadership and take responsibility to keep our institutions accountable. People across Canada must know their Parliament is addressing the institutional violence in their communities as a critical and immediate priority,” she wrote.
“There is a clear, urgent interest for Parliament to debate this disturbing pattern, so that parliamentarians can discuss immediate measures that can be taken to save Indigenous lives, today.”
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said the deaths demonstrate systemic issues across the country. She demanded accountability from police through independent investigations into each of the deaths.
“Time and again, we have witnessed the consequences of law enforcement’s failure to employ de-escalation techniques and culturally informed practices,” she said in a statement last month.
“We will continue to call for action to address these failures and expect full transparency in cases where lives have been needlessly lost.”
The families gathered in Ottawa on Tuesday said any potential inquiry must be Indigenous-led and include national data. They also said no federal ministers or opposition parties have agreed to meet with them to discuss the matter.
“This is also an invitation for the federal government to reckon publicly with the statistics that are often obscured,” said Meenakshi Mannoe, a community organizer with the Defund 604 Network.
“As Laura Holland mentioned, this violence against Black and Indigenous people is actually quite fundamental to Canada, and it is actually a part of how this state exists. The state exists because Indigenous people are under constant threat of police death and police fatality.”
With files from the Canadian Press.
