Police Brutality Against Indigenous Youth

A disproportionate number of indiginous youth are represented in the criminal justice system of Canada. Indigenous youth are up to ten times more likely to be arrested, taken into custody, and on probation than non-minority youth. This inconsistency in the criminal justice system can be linked to the historic and ongoing colonialization of Canada that actively reproduces socioeconomic, education, and stigmatized disadvantages for Indigenous youth. During these accounts with the criminal justice system, law enforcement actively partakes in misconducts, particularly pertaining to police brutality agaisnt indigenous youth. Law enforcement’s response to these cases of police brutality are found to be inadequate and deny the ongoing colonial violence at play.

Excessive use of force against minors

During a search by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), numerous Aboriginal minors came forward with accounts of police interactions that left them physically beating, bruised or injured. In one case, a fifteen year old girl had called the police about a domestic disturbance and was subsequently slammed up against a wall by an officer who then twisted and broke her arm. In another case, RCMP officers have been found to push a 15 year old Indigenous boy to the ground unprovoked, subsequently choking, punching and tasering him multiple times. Other cases of being attacked by a police dog, pepper sprayed multiple times without incident, painfully tight handcuffing resulting in bruising and tearing of skin, being repeatedly beaten with a baton and tasering of minors as young as 12 years of age have also been reported to the HRW.

Unarmed shootings

Indigenous male youth in particular are more vulnerable to police violence, being up to three times more likely to be shot and killed by police than non-Indigenous male youth. This disproportion is attributed to law enforcement's racial profiling against Indigenous youth, who are viewed to be innately criminal by the criminal justice system and subsequently by a majority of police officers, especially in areas of high-Indigenous populations. The shootings of Indigenous youth by law enforcement are often acts of police misconduct as a majority of victims were non-lethally armed or unarmed at the time.

Matthew Dumas

In response to a 911 police call regarding an attempted robbery by whom the caller described as three "Native-looking" youth, Matthew Dumas, an 18 year old Indigenous male fled in response to being pursued by the police. The officers claimed to believe he was carrying a gun and acting suspicious, subsequently fatally shooting Dumas. No gun was found on Dumas - he was only in possession of a mere screwdriver - and further independent investigations would reveal that Dumas had no involvement in the attempted robbery. This blatant police profling is part of a pattern in Canadian policing that criminalizes Indigenous youth.

Sexual harrasment against Indigenous girls

Cross-gender searches

In opposition to international human rights standards which report that physical searches by authorities should be conducted by same-sex persons - a regulation that itself is exclusive to gender nonconforming individuals - numerous Indigenous girls have reportedly been touched inappropriately by the male officer during these searches. This is a consequence of RCMP allowing for officers to search individuals of the opposite sex if in the presence of others, although this condition is often not enforced. Despite this condition, Indigenous girls have claimed to be inappropriately searched while in the presence of other officers, their legal guardian(s), and friends.

Celynn Cadieux

Celynn Cadieux, an Indigenous girl from British Columbia that was a victim of serial rapist judge Ramsay at age 13, had also been sexually exploited by law enforcement in throughout her youth. Cadieux used to be stopped by male police officers on the road who placed their hands down her pants, claiming that they were searching her for drugs. Cadieux overdosed at age 22, resulting in her death, while her abusers were never reported and remain unimpeded by their actions.

Sex exchange

Male officers have been found by the HRW to ask for sexual favours from female Indigenous youth, including minors, in exchange for money or other forms of 'payment' such as not placing the individual under arrest. The RCMP blatantly dismissed an allegation of an officer that paid an Indigenous minor sixty dollars for oral sex, striking her face when she asked to use a condom. Other officers that are reported have never been charged, as the lack of evidence allows for the cases to be easily dropped by law enforcement.

Rape and sexual assault

In addition to the fear of stigmas and feelings of shame found in cases of sexual assault, Indigenous girls rarely recount, let alone report, cases of sexual assault and rape by law enforcement for fear of retaliation by the police. This has resulted in a knowledge gap that reproduces the lack of accountability of the perpetrators and an absence of help, justice and safety for the victims of sexual assault and rape by police. Although the lack of reporting disallows for the prevalence of these incidents to be known, these cases are so widespread that in one small Canadian town with a large Indigenous population, a community worker reported that she carries packages of underwear for street women and girls because many have told her of their sexual assault by police who then confiscate their underwear.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)

The final report of Canada's national inquiry into MMIWG has placed law enforcement as one of the systems held accountable for the perpetuation of the MMIWG epidemic. Police have been found to misplace or delete files of missing Indigenous women or girls by about a third of total cases, and the national inquiry report has directly linked law enforcement to many instances of missing Indigenous girls that are last reported to be taken into police custody, and effectively never seen again. Law enforcement are therefore not only accountable for MMIWG cases due to inadequete investigation, but are found to be direct perpetrators through police misconduct.

Tina Fontaine

A prominent case of missing and murdered Indigenous girls is the death of 15 year old Tina Fontaine, of which police injustice is evident and resulted in much public outcry, sparking the national inquiry into MMIWG. Winnipeg Police had found Fontaine intoxicated with an older man in a truck, and although knew her to be reported missing, did not take her in. As a result of this blatant police oversight, Fontaine was later found dead in the Red River.Although not missing directly in the hands of police custody, as many Indigenous youth are, Fontaine's death remains an injustice of police misconduct by racialized selective law enforcing.

Starlight Tours

Following the report by of an Indigenous man from Saskatoon, Darrell Night, the police department were investigated for practicing what became known as Starlight Tours. This practice involved police driving an Indigenous person in custody to the outskirts of the city limits and dumping them there, forcing them to attempt to walk back in the bitterly cold winter. Following the report, numerous bodies similar to the vicinity of where Night was abandoned were found. having died from hypothermia. After this discovery, the police department's inhumane practice gained national attention, which resulted in the University’s Native Law Centre to receive over 400 calls, many of whom were Indigenous minors claiming to have also been victims of Starlight Tours.

Neil Stonechild

In light of the discovery of Starlight Tour victims, the body of Neil Stonechild, a 17-year-old Indigenous boy who was last seen alive in the back of a police cruiser a decade earlier, was exhumed for a judicial inquiry. This inquiry found that the initial police investigation of Stonechild's death was inadequete. As a result, a superficial province-wide justice inquiry was put into effect, which concluded Starlight Tours to be isolated incidents by racist officers, and not part of a larger system of institutionalized police brutality agaisnt Indigenous people.

Police Accountability

Some accounts of police misconduct are the result of poor police tactics and aggressive policing that stems from a misunderstanding of Indigenous colonial oppressions and stigmas related to Indigenous youth. Others are deliberate criminal acts perpetuated with the knowledge that Indigenous youth are a vulnerable marginalized group and an expectation that the officers will not be charged for any crimes. In either case, documenting police abuse is difficult for Indigenous youth, due to their fear of police retaliation.

Reported police misconduct

In cases where police misconduct is reported, law enforcement are the ones to investigate the complaints themselves. The policy of the RCMP allows for complaints filed against police to be investigated by another RCMP detachment or as a 'last resort' the detachment in question will internally investigate. This clause allows for officers to cover for one another, leading to a faulty investigation.

Police cover-ups

When victims file complaints, they most likely have no concrete evidence of police misconducts, which allows for police to fabricate stories. Officers have knowledge of the blind spots in police departments, and cover-up events such as fictitious power outages can result in the loss of digital recordings. Other forms of cover-ups also occur, such as officers arresting their victims for assault or blaming other cellmates for police beatings or sexual exploitations.

National Inquiry suggestions

The MMIWG National Inquiry's final report has developed suggestions that address the ongoing colonial genocide of Indigenous people in Canada. In this is "calls for police services," which establishes guidelines to help law enforcement develop a better relationship with Indigenous community to combat the failings of the police. In response to police misconduct in particular, section 9.4 states "We call upon all police services to establish an independent, special investigation unit for the investigation of incidents of failures to investigate, police misconduct, and all forms of discriminatory practices and mistreatment of Indigenous Peoples within their police service. This special investigation unit must be transparent in practice and report at least annually to Indigenous communities, leadership, and people in their jurisdiction." Moreover, section 5.4-ii specifically references police misconduct in cases of rape and sexual assault by officers, suggesting a more extensive and transparent investigatory process. Despite the evident need to enforce these 'calls' for reform, the MMIWG final report's suggestions are not mandatory, and may not come into affect, allowing for colonial oppression and the racial genocide of Indigenous people in Canada to continue.