Canadian People Must Put an End to Police Impunity
Condemn State-Sanctioned Police Violence Against Indigenous Peoples!
Since August 29, eight Indigenous people have been killed by police in five provinces. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) condemns these brutal police killings and all state violence against Indigenous Peoples and joins the call for justice for the victims and for those responsible to be held to account. We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and communities.
These are the names of those who died since August 29:
Jack Piche, 31, a Clearwater River Dene Nation man, 31, was struck and killed by RCMP on Highway 909 between Buffalo Narrows and Turnor Lake in Saskatchewan on August 29.
Hoss Lightning Saddleback, 15, from the Samson Cree Nation was shot by RCMP in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, after he called them for help on August 30.
Tammy Bateman, in her 30s, a member of the Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation was struck and killed by a Winnipeg police car in a park on September 2.
Jason West, 57, a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, was shot by Windsor police on September 6.
Daniel Knife, 31, a member of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in Saskatchewan was shot by RCMP on September 8.
Steven "Iggy" Dedam, 34, was killed by RCMP responding to a call in Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick on September 8.
Jon Wells, 42, of the Blood tribe, was killed by Calgary police
who responded to a call at a hotel and conference centre in the
city September 17.
Joseph Desjarlais, 34, was killed during a police chase on
Fishing Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan on September 24.
The Assembly of First Nations, alongside other Indigenous groups and organizations and Canadians and Quebeckers of conscience have spoken out in condemnation of the ongoing police violence against Indigenous people, many raising the issue of why the police continue to go directly to deadly force and not de-escalation, when dealing with them.
Christa Big Canoe, Legal Director of Aboriginal Legal Services in Toronto and partner on the Tracking (In)Justice project, a project of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, speaking about the police killing of Indigenous people in 2023, pointed out "... [T]hese numbers, these deaths, must be situated in a context of systemic discrimination within the criminal justice system. While we have known anecdotally that Indigenous people are over-represented in police use of force-involved deaths in Canada, this data provides us a clear picture of ongoing colonial racial injustice. While 5.1 per cent of people living in Canada are Indigenous, 16.2 per cent of people killed in police involved deaths are Indigenous."
The killings of Indigenous
people and members of other marginalized groups continue and
increase because the Canadian state and the Criminal Code enables the
police to act with impunity. The Criminal Code empowers police to use deadly
force if they have "reasonable grounds" to believe it necessary
to protect the officer or any other person involved. "Reasonable
grounds" is used to justify police violence including choke
holds, tasers and lethal force even when there is ample evidence
that there is no credible threat to the police or the public
that cannot be handled without violence.
When it comes to accountability, often police stonewall, refuse to comply in investigations and refuse to tell the truth about the actions of their fellow officers, something Winnipeg defence lawyer and former Toronto police officer James Lowry calls "the blue wall of silence." The end result is that between 2000 and 2018, there were 461 deaths at the hands of police in Canada. There were 18 officers criminally charged and only two convicted. Governments at all levels fund and protect the police as a top priority, while cutting funding for social programs. Police are the "enforcers" of the anti-social order. The call across Canada to "defund the police" is a demand by the people to put an end to police impunity and to fund social programs instead of the police.
In its June 2021 report to Parliament on "Systemic Racism in Policing in Canada," the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security acknowledged widespread racism within the RCMP and other police forces across the country. It made 42 recommendations aimed at "building trust" between "Indigenous and racialized communities" and the police. This report, like countless others before it, is meant to disinform and divert attention from the fact that the Canadian state, its courts and institutions were founded as part of the genocidal colonial project of the British colonialists which denies the rights of the Indigenous Peoples, immigrants, workers and everyone else. The police are the enforcers of the "rule of law" that supports this ongoing violation of rights.
Canadian democracy is in need of profound changes, modernization and renewal. Fundamental to this is a modern constitution which upholds the rights of all, including the hereditary rights of the Indigenous Peoples, and which puts the police and armed forces under the control of the people.
This article was published in
September 30, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/ITN2024/Articles/TI54212.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca