Organizations representing Indigenous people in Manitoba say they are disturbed by recent acts of violence against First Nations people in Canada by RCMP officers.
Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand Chief Garrison Settee says he is concerned by the fatal shooting of Chantel Moore by an RCMP officer in New Brunswick as well as an incident in Nunavut where an Inuk man was knocked over after being hit by an RCMP vehicle and an Alberta First Nation chief saying he was assaulted after being pulled over for expired licence plate tags.
"In the most recent case of Chantel Moore, we understand that the police were called to perform a wellness check,” said Settee in a June 10 press release. “That wellness check absolutely should not be death for a young Indigenous woman, who now leaves a young child without a mother. The police have a duty to protect and yet it seems like we have to protect ourselves against them now. We need to see immediate changes to the ways in which RCMP, and other police, are working with Indigenous people.”
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said that incidents in which Indigenous people are inured or killed during interactions with the police are “not an anomaly.”
“The scales of justice for First Nations in Canada continue to be broken and need to be fixed immediately,” said Dumas.
Police brutality is not a new thing, Settee said, but modern technology makes it much more likely that the incidents can be recorded and seen by people who weren’t involved.
“It should not be the case that citizens are required to record interactions with police,” said Settee. “Leaders at all levels must work together to end police brutality and violence against Indigenous peoples.”
AMC, which speaks for all 62 of 63 First Nations in Manitoba, and MKO, which represents 26 First Nations in the province’s north, have both expressed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests happening in the United States in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer and other interactions with police that have left black Americans injured or dead.
“We know that there are several centuries of colonial injustices that overwhelmingly affect black and Indigenous peoples that have led tp the revolts and uprisings of the last several days,” Dumas said in a June 1 press release. “We are not surprised to see it finally come to a head like it has.”
“The ongoing killing of black people by police creates a deep heartaches that we related to as First Nations people,” said Settee June 5. "Indigenous peoples in Canada are all too often the target of police brutality, discrimination and racism. I urge Indigenous people and communities to stand in solidarity with our black relatives to address these ongoing injustices together.”
