Alberta Chief Allan Adam Assaulted by RCMP

18 posts / 0 new

Mon, 2020-06-08 19:06

jerrym

The picture below shows the extensive injuries suffered by Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation when stopped by the RCMP for an expired licence plate illustrates the deep racism that still exists in Canadian police forces. The RCMP says the police actions was justified because he resisted arrest. The same story the police always give to justify the unjustifiable.

The video of the police assault on Chief Adam can be seen at https://edmonton.citynews.ca/video/2020/06/07/police-watchdog-investigat...

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says he was beaten up and his wife man-handled by RCMP officers after they left a casino in Fort McMurray. / supplied

Chief Allan Adam is demanding the RCMP release the footage of his March 10 arrest that was recorded by a police dashcam, after the arrest left his face cut and bruised. He is also calling for the arresting officer’s suspension and an investigation.

“Every time our people do wrong, the RCMP… always seem to use excessive force,” he said during a Saturday morning press conference. “That has to stop. Enough is enough.”

Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and his lawyer, Brian Beresh, showed two videos of the incident, which took place outside the Boomtown Casino at roughly 2 a.m. March 10. The videos were filmed by bystanders. The chief says the incident began when police noticed his truck had an expired licence plate. Adam was outside his vehicle, moving a baby seat into the back to make room for a friend when an officer told him this.

Adam got back into the truck to tell his wife, Freda Courtoreille, they couldn’t leave. A police statement says the vehicle was unoccupied and idling, but Adam says his wife was in the driver’s seat. In the meantime, more officers arrived at the scene. Adam alleges an officer opened the driver’s side door where Courtoreille was sitting, pulled her out of the seat and pushed her against the vehicle.

In the first video, which runs less than a minute, at least three officers can be seen outside the truck. An officer opens the door and pulls Courtoreille out. She can be heard saying “I didn’t do anything to you guys.” The bystander filming the incident can be heard yelling “take it easy on the lady, guys.”

Adam said he got out of his vehicle to tell the police to let his wife go. An altercation occurred, which ended with another officer tackling Adam. “I dropped to my knees, and slowly I could feel I was going unconscious and all I could remember … blood was gushing out of my mouth,” Adam said.

In the second video, which is roughly three minutes, an officer has Adam pinned to the ground. Other officers are surrounding the scene. Adam says to the police his face is bleeding. An officer can be heard yelling “stop resisting,” and Adam yells back with “I’m not resisting.” An officer can also be heard saying “this guy came out of the car, ready to go.”

“At no point does Allan resist arrest,” said Beresh on Saturday. “He questions, as all of us can, what is the basis for this?” Beresh is asking for an investigation by an independent police force outside the RCMP.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which investigates deaths or injuries involving police, said that it will investigate the incident.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/athabasca-chipewyan-chief-re...

Wed, 2020-06-10 02:29

jerrym

The photo and videos of the incident once again illustrate the police rarely worry about any consequences when they deal with First Nations people, as they know there is almost never any consequences for them. Once again people claim Canada is much better than the US when it comes to racism and therefore many remain complacent about it.

Mr. Adam and his wife, Freda Courtoreille, were leaving the Boomtown Casino in Fort McMurray when police noticed that the licence plate on their truck had expired. An RCMP officer approached the vehicle and things quickly escalated.

A couple of videos taken by bystanders show Ms. Courtoreille being aggressively pulled from the vehicle and pushed up against the side of it. Off-camera you can hear someone say: “Take it easy on the lady, guys.” At this point, Mr. Adam gets out of the car to protest against the treatment of his wife. He’s taken down by an officer. There is much screaming by the chief, who says his face is bleeding.

He can also be heard identifying the position he holds with the ACFN. It doesn’t seem to matter. It does not appear from the two bystander videos that any effort was made to try and de-escalate the situation. ...

If the RCMP wanted to clear the air here, it would release its footage of the arrest of Mr. Adam. If it’s all as defensible as they say, then get it out there. But the force won’t. It won’t because its notion of what’s defensible isn’t the same as ours.

While the world has joined together for the George Floyd protests, we continue to ignore the racism and the police-instigated violence associated with it in Canada. Does anyone believe for a second that if it were Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson or some other prominent white politician in this country who was sitting in that truck that they would have been treated the same way? ...

Why isn’t it just as big of a deal when it’s an Indigenous leader? That’s a form of racism in itself.

To imagine that what happened to Mr. Adam isn’t happening often is naive. We recently saw video footage of an RCMP officer intentionally knocking an intoxicated Inuk man over with his truck in Nunavut. Another video was released on Friday that showed an Edmonton police officer jumping, knee-first, onto the back of a man already restrained on the ground by a fellow officer in 2019. (The man’s ethnicity isn’t clear.) He screams out in pain. It’s disgusting.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-we-should-be-enraged-by-...

Thu, 2020-06-11 06:36

Aristotleded24

I could see the police doing that to someone who had just been caught robbing a store or snatching an elderly lady's purse or someone who had committed an actual crime. Not that that's right, but I can understand where that impulse would come from. But all of this over an expired registration? Just tell him, "sir, your registration is expired, please take care of this." The police are their own worst enemy in situations like this.

Thu, 2020-06-11 19:28

laine lowe laine lowe's picture

It wasn't over an expired registration - that was the excuse to stop them - it was an opportunity to beat up on Indigenous people and put them in their place. Who knows, maybe the RCMP officers assaulted Mr. Adams and his wife because they were annoyed that they had a nice truck and money to spend at the casino. There are lots of racists out there who do not like seeing any signs of success among Indigenous people and assume anything they got was from their "woe is me taxpayer" pockets.

Thu, 2020-06-11 19:34

Aristotleded24

Do you mean like the "black guy driving anything but than a burnt-out pinto you better stop him because he stole it law" that Will Smith told us about almost 30 years ago?

Thu, 2020-06-11 19:40

laine lowe laine lowe's picture

No in some cases with First Nations people, it comes down to resentment. As in to paraphrase: there is no way these lazy people did anything to deserve this nice truck. I'm sure that in urban settings, the dynamic about assuming theft probably comes into play for both. Equally racist is to assume that if the driver is Asian, they can afford the vehicle but not necessarily drive it well.

Fri, 2020-06-12 00:45

jerrym

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki danced around whether there is structural racism in the RCMP, saying "“You know, it’s a question I haven’t been struggling with but I have been struggling with the definition of systemic racism". Which alternate universe does she live in?

Trudeau did some dancing around about the phrase while trying to defend Lucki and avoiding directly using the phrase because it would then raise the question of what he, as leader of the country would do about it, other than saying we are struggling with a problem.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he still has confidence in RCMPCommissioner Brenda Lucki after she admitted to “struggling” with the definition of systemic racism. He added that’s something many Canadians are also grappling with amid what he described as a national “awakening.”

Trudeau was asked during a press conference on Thursday about the remarks by Lucki, who said in an interview with Global News on Wednesday that she was struggling with the definition of systemic racism and how that applies to the institution of the national police force.

“We’re facing a really important time in our country right now where we are recognizing what many Indigenous and racialized Canadians have known for a long time,” Trudeau said, noting that racism “is not part of the lived reality of a significant majority of Canadians.”

“Recognizing that is difficult, and we need to make sure we are moving forward in meaningful ways, and that’s also going to be difficult … I think we’ve seen that institutions and organizations and even different parts of the country are struggling with this very difficult issue.” ...

Lucki was asked directly by The West Block host Mercedes Stephenson whether she believes there is systemic racism in the RCMP, a question that came following intense criticism of how the RCMP and police forces across the country interact with Black Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. ...

“You know, it’s a question I haven’t been struggling with but I have been struggling with the definition of systemic racism, and when I think of unconscious bias, there is unconscious bias in the RCMP, most definitely,” Lucki said in response. ...

Shortly after her interview, the group Canadians United Against Hate put out a statement criticizing Lucki’s remarks as “tone deaf” and “out of touch.”

Fareed Khan, founder of the group, said the comments amount to “denying the lived reality of racist abuse by police towards Indigenous, Black and racialized Canadians.” ...

“Politicians at all levels had better take the bull by the horns and listen to what Canadians across the country are calling for with respect to police encounters with racialized Canadians,” he said.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7054068/justin-trudeau-rcmp-commissioner-syst...

Fri, 2020-06-12 05:18

Debater

Trudeau has actually done a pretty good job of strongly speaking out against systemic racism over the past week.

So much so in fact that he's been attacked for it by various right-wingers from Andrew Scheer to Rex Murphy.

Fri, 2020-06-12 08:57

Misfit

But do nothing about it.

Fri, 2020-06-12 11:48

#10

northwestern_lad

I've been stopped for an expired license plate before & it didn't involve arrest, let alone what that video showed. I'm Métis and I was ticketed & sent on my way, even though I never should have been stopped in the first place by the officer in question. But I was only ticketed because I asserted my rights regarding being stopped in the first place, so then came the ticket for the license plate. It felt like the officer in question was trying to "put me in my place" and that's how that video felt to me when I saw it. There are so many questions that come from this that require serious answers. But honestly, I can't help but wonder how many people simply wouldn't have believed Chief Adam, despite the evidence of his injuries, without that video.

https://magpiebrule.ca/2020/06/12/dashcam-video-as-a-rorschach-test/

Fri, 2020-06-12 12:09

#11

Bacchus

The tags are set up in such a way that a cop can see them from a distance and know if they were old or not

Fri, 2020-06-12 13:31

(Reply to #11) #12

kropotkin1951

Debater wrote:

Trudeau has actually done a pretty good job of strongly speaking out against systemic racism over the past week.

So much so in fact that he's been attacked for it by various right-wingers from Andrew Scheer to Rex Murphy.

I was especially pleased that when he knelt to honour BLM he didn't chose to go in black face paint. He is a hypocrite who makes me cringe every time he whiningly opens his mouth and spouts fake empathy.

Fri, 2020-06-12 13:34

#13

kropotkin1951

Here is an excellent piece. I listened to her litany of reports and studies and was familiar with all of them. In the nearly forty years I have been looking at indigenous issues nothing has changed. No more fucking studies its time somebody implemented the recommendations that have been recurring in reports, literally for decades.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZDEwDn7hSQ

Fri, 2020-06-12 15:44

#14

NDPP

Unfortunately for Indigenous people in Canada this incident is pretty much RCMPig business as usual.

Trending in Canada: #DefundTheRCMP

https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefundTheRCMP?src=hashtag_click

Fri, 2020-06-12 20:09

(Reply to #14) #15

laine lowe laine lowe's picture

northwestern_lad wrote:

I've been stopped for an expired license plate before & it didn't involve arrest, let alone what that video showed. I'm Métis and I was ticketed & sent on my way, even though I never should have been stopped in the first place by the officer in question. But I was only ticketed because I asserted my rights regarding being stopped in the first place, so then came the ticket for the license plate. It felt like the officer in question was trying to "put me in my place" and that's how that video felt to me when I saw it. There are so many questions that come from this that require serious answers. But honestly, I can't help but wonder how many people simply wouldn't have believed Chief Adam, despite the evidence of his injuries, without that video.

https://magpiebrule.ca/2020/06/12/dashcam-video-as-a-rorschach-test/

I am so sorry you went through that. I am sure that as a white person, I would have probably been given a warning and grace time to get my plates replaced. That is the crux of it. Two sets of behaviours in how police go about their policing.

I remember way back during a Canada Day celebration being so upset, not only with what I saw but with the fact that the group I was with didn't think it was important to intervene. Ottawa used to go to the hilt celebrating and people definitely got drunk and rowdy. But in the lobby of the Chateau Laurier, pretty much at the centre of celebrations, security guards had a Black man pinned down in a choke hold for I guess being unruly. It seemed so over the top to me and racist.

Fri, 2020-06-12 20:33

(Reply to #15) #16

jerrym

kropotkin1951 wrote:

Debater wrote:

Trudeau has actually done a pretty good job of strongly speaking out against systemic racism over the past week.

So much so in fact that he's been attacked for it by various right-wingers from Andrew Scheer to Rex Murphy.

I was especially pleased that when he knelt to honour BLM he didn't chose to go in black face paint. He is a hypocrite who makes me cringe every time he whiningly opens his mouth and spouts fake empathy.

I just began a separate thread on Trudeau's failure to implement the recommendations of the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls report that was released on June 3rd, 2019, but has now been criticized as a "resounding failure" by the Native Women's Association of Canada and the national MMIWG inquiry's four commissioners in terms of implementing even a few of its 219 recommendations. When the government at the beginning of this month offered the excuse that the government's response to Covid-19 delayed any action on the MMIWG report, indigenous leaders only felt further insulted, especially when the Trudeau government had nine months before even having to begin to deal with Covid-19.

Once again with the RCMP, Trudeau does a good job of performing in the 'I feel your pain' theatre, but when it comes to action, he accomplishes almost nothing.

Fri, 2020-06-26 20:49

#17

jerrym

Charges against Chief Allan Adam have finally been dropped by the prosecutor on June 24th. The obvious question is why did it take so long? Did it have anything to do with the public finally be able to see what happened and seeing how ridiculous the charges were?

Sadly the prosecutor had no comment on the actions of the police.

Charges have been dropped against the chief of a northern Alberta First Nation who was the subject of a violent arrest earlier this year.

The case of Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation was in front of a Fort McMurray provincial court judge Wednesday.

Court records show charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer were withdrawn by the Crown.

"I thank the prosecutor for what I think is a wise and just decision," Adam's lawyer Brian Beresh told the court.

In a news conference later, Beresh said the move validates Adam's view that the arrest was "excessive, unreasonable and unwarranted."

"It is clear that his race played a role in the police decision to charge," Beresh said. He said Adam believes the charges were laid as a "police shield to their aggressive and abusive conduct."

The March 10 arrest stirred controversy following the release of dashcam video showing an RCMP officer tackling Adam to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold.

In a statement, Alberta Justice spokesperson Carla Jones said the Crown withdrew the two charges after examining the available evidence, including the "disclosure of additional relevant material."

The statement said the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service "has no comment on the actions of the police."

Fri, 2020-06-26 20:58

#18

jerrym

Meanwhile the assaulting officer remains on duty even though he is facing another assault charge dating from August 5th 2019 that goes to trial on September 30 2020. As Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said, he needs to be charged for his assault of Chief Allan Adam.

Why isn't Seguin already suspended until the outcome of the trial for his previous assault? All he got internally for that assault was a one-day suspension and letter or reprimand from the internal RCMP review process, showing that he was considered at fault in the previous incident. He should have already been gone from the RCMP.

The head of the country's most influential First Nations organization is calling for the Alberta RCMP to suspend the officer who tackled Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam during a violent arrest in March.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said in a statement Thursday that the RCMP should suspend Const. Simon Seguin until the province's police watchdog, the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, concludes its investigation into Adam's March 10 arrest.

"I've consistently said there must be a zero-tolerance policy for excessive use of force by police, which is under investigation at this time," Bellegarde said in the statement.

"The news that Constable Simon Seguin is still on active duty is unacceptable. The RCMP should suspend the officer.... First Nations see the assault on Chief Allan Adam as unprovoked and unforgivable. To re-establish trust, the RCMP must address incidents of brutality head on."

Seguin currently remains on duty. The officer is also facing a Sept. 30 trial on charges of assault, mischief and unlawfully being in a dwelling house stemming from an incident on Aug. 5, 2019.

An RCMP code of conduct hearing into that incident was held on March 26, 16 days after Seguin tackled Adam. Seguin was given a one-day suspension for the mischief allegation and received a letter of reprimand in his file for the assault allegation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/afn-bellegarde-rcmp-allan-adam-1.5627715