International group delivers scathing report of RCMP policing of Aboriginal women and First Nations
RCMP under review over native women after scathing report
KIM MACKRAEL - May. 16 2013
The civilian watchdog that oversees the RCMP is launching a public-interest investigation into the force's treatment of aboriginal women and girls this week in response to a scathing report from a New York-based human-rights group.
The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP will examine policing issues in northern British Columbia, including officers' use of force, police handling of missing-persons reports, and the treatment of young people. The investigation comes after a Human Rights Watch report detailed allegations of abuse and mistreatment by police and suggested the RCMP has failed to properly investigate a series of disappearances and suspected murders of aboriginal women.Complaints documented by the rights group ranged from handcuffs being applied too tightly to an unwarranted attack by a police dog against a 12-year-old girl and allegations of sexual abuse and rape. The report did not include the full names of many of the alleged victims because it said they were too fearful of repercussions from police to allow themselves to be identified.
"What we're trying to do is take a broader approach than Human Rights Watch," Richard Evans, the commission's senior director, said on Wednesday.
The commission does not have the power to investigate criminal allegations, but it can look at whether some of the concerns raised in the report point to systemic problems in the RCMP's treatment of aboriginal women and girls in northern B.C., he said.
RCMP officers' conduct will be tested against the force's policies, guidelines, training and legislation, according to terms of reference posted on the commission's website on Wednesday. It will also look at whether officers were thorough and impartial in their work and try to determine whether the existing rules are adequate.
A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the government has no information about the Human Rights Watch allegations and had asked the commission to look into the matter.
Meghan Rhoad, a researcher with Human Rights Watch who was the lead author on the group's report, said she is encouraged that the government had referred the issue to the commission. But she expressed doubts about the commission's ability to handle the probe impartially because of its close connections with the police force it is responsible for monitoring.
"They're not a body that is at an adequate distance from the police to be able to go in and do this kind of an investigation," Ms. Rhoad said.
When an individual complains to the commission about a specific incident, the report is generally sent to the RCMP for the force to investigate or ask another police force to handle. Individuals who are not satisfied with the outcome can bring the concern back to the commission and ask it to follow up.
But public-interest investigations are run differently, Mr. Evans said, and allow the commission to investigate concerns independently - and avoid divulging a complainant's personal information to the RCMP.
A spokesman from the RCMP said the force takes the allegations seriously and is looking for opportunities to help it identify the complainants. "Complaints can be made to the RCMP directly, to the Commission [for] Public Complaints against the RCMP or to other independent investigative bodies without fear of retaliation," Sergeant Rob Vermeulen wrote in an e-mail.
British Columbia recently established its own Independent Investigations Office, which is thought to have more independence than the commission. However, the office's current mandate limits it to dealing with complaints that involve death or serious injury - which means it would not have had jurisdiction over many of the complaints in the Human Rights Watch report unless it had been asked to look into them by the province's justice minister.
Opposition parties and aboriginal leaders have called for a national commission of inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in Canada, a move Human Rights Watch researchers also support.
The government has not responded directly to those calls, but, earlier this year, it agreed to establish a parliamentary committee to study the issue. The Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women has met four times since March and is expected to table a report on its findings next year.
MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY
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- GLOBE EDITORIAL: FIRST TAKE Native families deserve full hearing into missing and murdered women
Video: Police bias against Pickton's victims: inquiry commissioner
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Harper 'skeptical' of inquiry into missing aboriginal women
'It is time to pass to action' instead of studying issue further, says prime minister
May 16, 2013
Speaking to business leaders Thursday in New York City, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he remains 'very skeptical' of commissions of inquiry. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he remains skeptical that a national inquiry would give answers to concerns about missing or murdered aboriginal women in Canada.
Harper made the comment Thursday in New York City, where he was promoting Canada-U.S. trade and the Keystone XL pipeline to business leaders.
During a question-and-answer session hosted by the Council for Foreign Relations, Harper was asked by a member of Human Rights Watch about the prospects of a federal inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
"I remain very skeptical of commissions of inquiry generally. My experience has been they almost always run way over time, way over budget, and often the recommendations prove to be of limited utility," he replied.
Harper said the issue has been studied extensively, and that "it is time to pass to action."
The Conservative government, Harper said, has invested resources to establish prevention programs and to buttress the investigative powers of police, and has also worked to improve the status of aboriginal women living on reserves, including legislation to protect their property rights.
On Thursday, the civilian watchdog that oversees the RCMP announced it will investigate allegations that aboriginal women and girls were abused by police in northern British Columbia.
Human Rights Watch, the Assembly of First Nations and federal opposition parties have for months called for a national commission of inquiry looking at the issue of missing aboriginal women.
The Conservative government responded by offering up a special parliamentary committee to study the issue.
Three human-rights groups, including two from the United Nations, will be visiting Canada over the next year to look at living conditions in First Nations communities.
The groups will also probe whether government and law enforcement are doing enough to resolve the cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women, which number as high as 600 according to the Native Women's Association of Canada.
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