Police Violence in Indigenous Communities

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Introduction

Police violence in Indigenous communities in Canada is widespread, systemic, and extremely damaging to the countless First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples living with the colonial settler state. Since this country’s formation in 1867 and the Indian Act, passed in 1876, the relationship between Indigenous communities and police forces is characterized by colonialism and violence. [1] The Indian Act basically united all existing legislation dealing with relations between the Crown and most Indigenous communities while ensuring that the colonial power retained all power over land and Indigenous peoples' lives. This document is still in place today, and perpetuates ongoing colonial violence on Indigenous people. This evidently influences the relationship between the state's law enforcer, the police, and Indigenous communities.

Categories of Police Violence

Police violence in indigenous communities can be broadly characterized into three categories: neglect, perpetuating racism and active brutality.

Neglect: Police systematically neglect cases that involve Indigenous folks as the victims of crime. Perhaps most widely known is the police failures in accurately documenting, investigating and assessing the disproportionately large number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Despite Indigenous women accounting for roughly 25% of homicide victims in 2015 in Canada, the police continue to fail to effectively investigate these cases. [2]

Perpetuating racism: Since Canada's founding, the police have historically worked alongside Roman Catholic and Anglican churches to enforce colonial policies and practices. There have been numerous accounts of racial profiling by police, and within other law enforcement institutions such as prisons, that discriminate against Indigenous folks. [3] Stereotypes of Indigenous peoples is very prevalent within police forces across Canada, from Thunder Bay to Northern BC. [4] [5]

Active brutality: Abusive by police officers disproportionately affects Indigenous women and girls. Allegations of abuse are rarely brought forward considering the colonial relationship victims have to the state, and its inherent nature to protect the abusers. Even when Indigenous woman and girls disclose instances of violence in police custody or by officers, they are typically handled internally within the police departments and treated like disciplinary issues rather than criminal activity. [6] Moreover, blatant violence such as the police shooting of an unarmed Indigenous man, J.J. Harper, as well as the death of Neil Stonechild while in police custody have not seen justice for their families and communities [7]. Practices such as Starlight Tours, where police randomly pick up Indigenous men, bring them out of town and leave them to freeze in the cold months of winter, are well documented in certain police forces, yet the problem still persists today. [8]

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

As of a 2014 Royal Canadian Mounted Police report, roughly 1200 Indigenous women and girls have been murdered or gone missing since 1980 in Canada [9]. While this number is staggering in and of itself, many activists and Indigenous organizers believe it is much higher. While the police are not always actively engaged in the violent disappearances and murders of these women, they are accountable for their malfunctions in effectively addressing these cases. For instance, countless reports show that many families of the victims believe the police did not take the cases of their loved ones seriously; more often than not, police make negative assumptions about the women who have gone missing and do not treat these cases in a fair and just manner [10]. When the CBC interviewed 110 families about their engagements with local police forces, the average rating on a scale from 1-10 was 2.8 [11].

Highway of Tears

Highway 16 in British Columbia is coined “The Highway of Tears” due to the countless Indigenous women who have disappeared or been killed while travelling along this route. While police estimate this number to be roughly 18 since the 1970s, Indigenous groups believe the total number of women who have either disappeared or been killed is closer to 50 [12]. The Highway of Tears is a site where the intersections of race, gender, class and mobility work to make the seemingly apolitical act of travel extremely dangerous for Indigenous women [13]. While there have been police efforts to discourage hitchhiking along the highway, Morton points out this is not only ineffective, but contributes to the ongoing narrative of the government’s attempt to control and monitor the activity of Indigenous peoples [14]. Dangerous travel along this highway is usually done out of necessity; the lack of basic services in remote Indigenous communities require many Indigenous folk to take this route to survive [15]. It is clear that Indigenous women experience intersecting forces of oppression when travelling along the Highway of Tears.

Tina Fontaine

One particularly harrowing and recent case that has garnered much media attention is the murder of Tina Fontaine, and Indigenous woman from Sagkeeng First Nation. Before she was murdered, Tina was in Manitoba’s Child and Family Services (CFS) foster care in Winnipeg [16]. Just a few hours before she died, the Winning Police force found Tina (15 years old at the time) intoxicated, in a car with a much older man, yet sent her home alone at 3:00 am without ensuring her safety and wellbeing [17]. She eventually died, and her body was found in the Red River [18]. This is an extremely devastating and tragic story for Tina, her family and loved ones who have not only suffered through immense pain, but still have no answers regarding the exact cause of her death.

More specifically, in Tina’s final hours, police interacted with her yet did nothing to ensure that she would survive. The neglect on the part of the Winnipeg police force, in addition to the settler colonial state that removed her from her family to begin with, are all complicit in her death. Moreover, the police officers who found Tina inside of the vehicle that night face internal review, yet no charges were filed against them, despite their inability to protect this person [19]. This is another example of the police endangering the lives of Indigenous people.

References

  1. ↑ Clairmont, D. (2013). Canada - Aboriginal. In M.K. Nalla & G.R. Newman (Eds.), Community Policing in Indigenous Communities (83-89). ProQuest: Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=1128527.
  2. ↑ National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2017). Our Women and Girls are Sacred. Retrieved from http://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/files/ni-mmiwg-interim-report-revised.pdf.
  3. ↑ Loppie, S., Reading, C., & de Leeuw, S. (2014). Aboriginal Experiences With Racism and its Impacts. National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health. 1-12. Retrieved https://www.ccnsa-nccah.ca/docs/determinants/FS-AboriginalExperiencesRacismImpacts-Loppie-Reading-deLeeuw-EN.pdf.
  4. ↑ The Canadian Press (2018, March 13). Human rights commissioner calls out 'pervasive' racism towards Indigenous people in Timmins. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/human-rights-timmins-racism-1.4574812.
  5. ↑ Canada: Abusive Policing, Neglect Along 'Highway of Tears'. (2013, February 13). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/13/canada-abusive-policing-neglect-along-highway-tears.
  6. ↑ Palmater, P. (2016). Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 28(2), 253-284. University of Toronto Press. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/629375/pdf.
  7. ↑ Ibid.
  8. ↑ Ibid.
  9. ↑ Walsh, J. (2017). The National Inquiry Into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls of Canada: A Probe in Peril. Indigenous Law Bulletin(8), 30. 6-10. Retrieved from https://search-informit-com-au.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/fullText;dn=320461230705244;res=IELIND
  10. ↑ S, Saramo. (2016) Unsettling Spaces: Grassroots Responses to Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women During the Harper Government Years, Comparative American Studies An International Journal, 14:3-4, 204-220. Retrieved from https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/doi/full/10.1080/14775700.2016.1267311#aHR0cHM6Ly93d3ctdGFuZGZvbmxpbmUtY29tLmV6cHJveHkubGlicmFyeS51YmMuY2EvZG9pL3BkZi8xMC4xMDgwLzE0Nzc1NzAwLjIwMTYuMTI2NzMxMT9uZWVkQWNjZXNzPXRydWVAQEAw
  11. ↑ Ibid.
  12. ↑ The Guardian (2016, June 17). Highway of Tears to get bus route after 18 women murdered or missing. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/17/canada-highway-of-tears-bus-service-murdered-indigenous-women
  13. ↑ Morton, K. (2016). Hitchhiking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Billboards on the Highway of Tears. Canadian Journal of Sociology 41(3), 299-325. University of Alberta. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1829012354?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14656
  14. ↑ Ibid
  15. ↑ see note 12
  16. ↑ Palmater, see note 6
  17. ↑ Ibid
  18. ↑ Cameron MacLean (2018, February 10). Police, hospital, child welfare workers all saw Tina Fontaine in 12 hours before disappearance. CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tina-fontaine-last-day-timeline-1.4529490
  19. ↑ Palmater, see note 6
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