‘We can do better’: Public Safety Minister talks First Nations policing during visit to Sask.

Earlier that day Mendicino was at James Smith Cree Nation, the site of the deadly stabbings that claimed the lives of 10 people in the community and in nearby Weldon. Mendicino met with Chief Wally Burns, Chief Robert Head and Chief Calvin Sanderson along with the families of the victims.

“This is a community that remains awash in grief and trauma and loss but there’s also perseverance and real strength and that’s something I saw this morning,” said Mendicino.

Aside from hearing the stories from community members, Mendicino also spoke about the federal government’s new initiative that would designate policing on First Nations as an essential service.

Chief Robert Head (centre) with other Chiefs from James Smith Cree Nation and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino (Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

Many communities in Canada have a tribal police force with Siksika Nation near Calgary announcing the creation of a self-administered policing service for the community last month.

The Siksika force would join Tsuu T’ina, Lakeshore and Blood Tribe as the other First Nations administer police services in Alberta.

According to the Federal Public Safety website, there are currently 35 First Nations police services in Canada and one Inuit police service, serving 155 First Nations and Inuit communities. They are located mainly in Ontario and Quebec, with a smaller presence across all western Canadian provinces. Saskatchewan has one First Nations police service: The File Hills Police Service in Balcarres.

These services receive funding through the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, which was created in 1991.

Many RCMP detachments serve First Nation communities, but some are not in the community themselves.

Chief Robert Head with the Peter Chapman First Nation said while RCMP responded as quickly as they could on Sept. 4, the day of the massacre, they still had to commute about 40 minutes to arrive at James Smith.

“If we had our own First Nations police, we could have addressed the situation in minutes.”

Head also mentioned the new public safety legislation should also look at the future of infrastructure. He pointed to the lack of space in many communities for people to come together to grieve and heal from any sort of tragedy.

“Healing for First Nations people is a long-term process, we can’t do it overnight, we can’t heal in a week or a month or a year,” he said. “We have a whole cycle of healing to address, we need help. We need some kind of place or building where we can go and start the healing process.”

This was also addressed when the Governor General of Canada visited the community last month.

Mendicino touched on the infrastructure needs following the signing of the Letter of Intent believing the government can do better. He said he received word that a wake service would be held for a member of James Smith Cree Nation Monday. However, without a proper building, the community school had to be shut down to allow the wake to be held in the gymnasium.

“I think we can and should do better,” he said.

Infrastructure will be but one part of the Letter of Intent signed Monday as the first step will be to create a public safety team that will hear the specific needs from each member nation of the PAGC.

Vice Chief Joseph Tsannie of the PAGC said while police forces like the future one in Siksika will help inspire other police forces, there is no “one size fits all” approach.

“We have 28 communities, and we have unique challenges with each of our First Nation communities. We have to adjust to the needs in our communities.”

Tsannie noted that the PAGC has been working on the possibility of introducing policing services since 2018 when they signed a resolution to look at community-based policing for 12 of their First Nations. He added the events at James Smith Cree Nation, put this initiative back at the forefront.

“It’s unfortunate that things happen but certainly it did open a lot of positive doors for our negotiating and getting us to where we are today, but the work has been happening.”

The federal legislation that could open the door to more First Nation police services doesn’t have a timeline, nor are there specifics regarding funding for such services.

Mendicino said he would like to see the legislation introduced as soon as possible but cautioned, there needs to be thorough and respectful dialogue with communities, which he said is already happening.

While policing is the main focus of the legislation, Mendicino said that is not the only issue it hopes to address.

“We need to look at ways to prevent crime from occurring in the first place,” he said. “That’s why making sure there is also support for culturally sensitive training, healing lodges, rehabilitation, reducing recidivism, all has to go on concurrently, even as we’re empowering communities to create their own policing services if they wish to.”

The proposed legislation stems from a series of public engagement sessions on First Nations policing that began on March 21 with the final report issued late last month. The primary findings from the report were a desire to rework the First Nations policing funding framework, making the service essential for all communities and determining the roles of the federal government, provincial government governments, and First Nations to make this a reality.

In the 2021 budget, the federal Liberals pledged $43.7 million over five years to co-develop a legislative framework that recognizes First Nations policing as an essential service.

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derek.craddock@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @PA_Craddock

by Derek Craddock

‘We can do better’: Public Safety Minister talks First Nations policing during visit to Sask.

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