Systemic racism in policing in Canada is a real and pressing problem to be urgently addressed, the House of Commons public safety committee says in a report released on Thursday.
The report contains 42 recommendations that the committee says are aimed at reforming Canadian policing to “ensure that all Canadians can access police services free from racism and other forms of discrimination.” Among its calls is a request for the RCMP to implement effective ongoing training and disciplinary policies for officers, in order to “prevent excess use of force, systemic racism and racial profiling, and require the RCMP to publish and publicly disclose all disciplinary decisions.”
Liberal MP John McKay, who chairs the public safety committee, said Thursday that it must be acknowledged that the RCMP’s “quasi-military” existence is not working for all Canadians. It is time for Canada to have a “reckoning with itself and its premier institutions,” he added.
The committee report also includes a call for the federal government to clarify and strengthen the mandate, independence and efficacy of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) for the RCMP. The CRCC is an independent agency to which individuals can bring complaints about the conduct of RCMP members. It conducts reviews when complainants are not satisfied with the RCMP’s handling of their grievances.
The committee report says that Ottawa must substantially increase funding for the CRCC to ensure sufficient resources to examine complaints. There must be changes, including the creation of statutory timelines for responses by the RCMP Commissioner to CRCC reports, the report adds.
Witnesses told MPs that there have been previous reports on systemic racism in Canadian policing over the decades, and yet “many of the issues identified and recommendations made previously have resulted in little change or responses that have failed to remedy the disproportionate harms experienced by Indigenous and racialized communities.”
In a supplementary report, the New Democrats say that for many Black, Indigenous and racialized people in Canada, the police embody “the systemic racism that permeates the justice system and are seen as a threat.”
“Yet across the country, many police services insist that a police officer must be the first one to enter a unit when responding to a mental health crisis or request for a wellness check, even when a mental health worker is available and there is no known safety threat,” the NDP’s report says.
“This often further escalates the situation and has resulted in numerous fatalities, severe injuries, and trauma. Mental health professionals must be empowered to be first responders whenever possible, while still being appropriately supported by police.”
NDP public safety critic Jack Harris, who got the support of the committee to initiate the study, said Thursday that the government must exercise political will to make transformative change.
“We can’t go on seeing what we are seeing,” he said in an interview. “People’s lives are at stake. People’s well-being is at stake, and we have to transform policing – and that includes transforming the RCMP from the ground up.”
Mr. Harris said the NDP sees the RCMP Depot Division in Regina, which provides training for new officers, as being steeped in colonial culture and a paramilitary structure. He said it should be replaced by a national police college, started from the ground up with support and advice from Indigenous and racialized people.
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