Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario Appear at Assembly of First Nations, Call Out Canada For Discriminatory Conduct on First Nations Community Safety
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Posted by Shelby Percival
- Posted in BlogsNews
Today, representatives of the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario (“IPCO”), including Executive Director Kai Liu and legal counsel Julian Falconer, appeared at a plenary session on First Nations policing at the annual AFN assembly.
The panel, titled Systemic Racism and Advancing First Nations Policing, highlighted recent efforts to hold Canada accountable for decades of discriminatory underfunding of First Nations community safety. Kai Liu spoke to the shocking differences between non-First Nations policing and the limited resources First Nations are forced to work with, emphasizing the importance of a united front against Canada’s discriminatory funding practices under the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP).
Legal counsel Julian Falconer provided an update on IPCO’s recent successes in legal challenges to Canada’s tactics, including the emergency injunction order which IPCO won in its ongoing Canadian Human Rights Tribunal complaint, and Canada’s failed efforts to limit the scope of the complaint. Mr. Falconer also reiterated IPCO’s call for Canada to step up and fulfil its equitable safety commitments, and cease deploying unfair tactics in its persistent efforts to force First Nations to accept substandard community safety services.
Appearing alongside IPCO on the panel were Regional Chief Verreault-Paul, Regional Chief Teegee, Tribal Chair Patsy Corbiere (Aundeck Omni Kaning), Chief of Police Jerel Swamp, Rama Police Service (President, First Nations Chiefs of Police Association), and Benoit Amyot, Legal Counsel for the Quebec Association of First Nations and Inuit Police Directors, which has its own ongoing human rights complaint, similar to IPCO’s.
