CAPG: Falconers LLP Presents on the “Bait and Switch” of the First Nations Policing Program

On Monday September 27, 2021, Falconers LLP Senior Partner Julian Falconer and associates Jeremy Greenberg and Shelby Percival presented at the Canadian Association of Police Governance (“CAPG”) conference on Peacekeeping in First Nations Communities. Julian and the team presented on the topic of “The First Nations Policing Program – The Ultimate Bait and Switch”. There were well over 100 attendees to the virtual presentation, including individuals from a variety of police services and police service boards across Canada.

The focus of the presentation was the history of policing of First Nations, leading up to the creation of the First Nations Policing Program (“FNPP”) and the subsequent challenges associated with this program. First Nations police services in Canada receive their funding through FNPP funding agreements – funding coming in part from the federal government and in part from the provincial government.

The presentation focused in-depth on the restrictive FNPP Terms and Conditions, which operate to prevent First Nations from accessing the same quality and standards of policing available to non-First Nations communities. In comparison, the First Nations Policy Policing, last updated in1996, is a progressive policy document. The unfortunate reality is that, once Canada realized this, they turned it into a “phantom policy”: it has disappeared from all official discussions of the FNPP, with Canada instead relying on the restrictive Terms and Conditions.

There were many informed questions and an interesting virtual dialogue surrounding the restrictions imposed on First Nations communities, and the realities of the progressive “Phantom Policy” which has all but disappeared.

Materials related to the presentation can be found linked below:
Falconers LLP Firm Bio on Indigenous Policing
CAPG Agenda 2021
FNPP Terms and Conditions (2017)
FNPP Policy (1992)
FNPP Policy (1996)
Presentation at the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs

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