Superb phrases on Reconciliation Day, however police violence continues

Article content material

A darkish shadow hovered over Reality and Reconciliation Day in Calgary on Monday.

The positive phrases and grand guarantees did nothing no matter for Jon Wells, a Blood Tribe man who died after an altercation with police lower than two weeks in the past.

Within the Carriage Home lodge foyer at 1 a.m. on Sept. 17, Wells was unarmed as he confronted police. He repeated, “I don’t need to die.”

He was Tasered, tackled, punched within the head, positioned face down in a masks and injected, based on an announcement from the Alberta Severe Incident Response Workforce.

Article content material

Three officers concerned are nonetheless on the job, doing non-police work pending investigation.

This case is genuinely tragic. The poor man’s worst worry got here true. However the usage of police pressure towards Indigenous individuals is under no circumstances uncommon.

Group leaders say all the Canadian policing system owes a normal, nationwide apology.

Apologies are simple, although. They don’t imply a lot when such incidents proceed.

Two different Alberta circumstances present how Indigenous individuals will be accosted within the blink of an eye fixed, for no obvious cause besides being who they’re.

On March 10, 2020, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and his spouse have been within the car parking zone outdoors a Fort McMurray on line casino.

Their car apparently had an expired plate. An RCMP officer approached. Adam requested what was fallacious, as he had the best to do. A second officer arrived and brutally tackled Adam.

In a citizen video of the incident, Adam might be heard crying, “Why the f— do you individuals do that to us?”

Adam suffered an unsightly black eye and cuts throughout his face. As appears typical in these circumstances, he was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

Article content material

Article content material

These fees have been later dropped. The one assault, it appeared, got here from the police. A later lawsuit from Adams was settled out of court docket.

Brian Beresh, Adam’s lawyer within the case, stated: “It seems to me there isn’t a different motivation for this police misconduct aside from racism.”

One other putting case got here up in Edmonton final week when two law enforcement officials have been charged with assault on Max Chook, an Indigenous man.

Chook had skilled as a primary responder. When he noticed automobiles in a ditch after an accident on Oct. 14, 2023, he rushed on foot to see if he may assist.

He noticed there have been no individuals within the automobiles. Then he and a police officer throughout the highway noticed one another. He waved, and the officer drove to him throughout an overpass.

As Chook instructed the Edmonton Journal, he defined that he was a primary responder making an attempt to assist.

“They simply commenced Tasing me … and after they stopped Tasing me they began beating me up, bodily.”

Predictably, Chook was charged with obstruction. This was later dropped, and two of the three officers concerned have been charged.

Defence lawyer Beresh, who represents many Indigenous individuals, says his commentary over a few years is that police violence towards Indigenous individuals is a severe, endemic drawback.

Article content material

“In some circumstances, the authorities take the arrest as a licence to humiliate, degrade and bodily and emotionally assault suspects, when the usage of the pressure is hardly justified.”

These circumstances grew to become public. Many extra don’t. Deep distrust of police runs by means of Indigenous life throughout Alberta.

To lots of them, Reality and Reconciliation Day is only a vacation for others (because the granddad of Indigenous Albertans, I can say this with authority).

That is deeply damaging not simply to the Indigenous neighborhood, however to the numerous good cops who attempt to make issues proper. Misuse of pressure makes individuals suspicious of any police violence, even when it’s justified.

Metropolis councils, police commissions and police forces throughout Canada have the facility to make this cease. They need to, if reconciliation is to have any which means in any respect.

Don Braid’s columns seem commonly within the Herald

X: @DonBraid

Article content material