The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), which is hardly known as being hard-hitting in dealing with police issues, report on how the RCMP dealt with the murder of Colten Boushie once again illustrates the deep systemic discrimination present in the police force. After failing to release the report for a year, the RCMP had the utter gall to say the report would increase the public's confidence in the police force and the police union, of course, said it was biased: the usual BS.
The report found that the initial RCMP reports on Colten's killings focused on him allegedly being involved in stealing, when there was no evidence of that, thereby resulting in massive vitriol pouring down on his family and giving the impression he deserved to be killed, no doubt also making it easier for the killer to be found innocent at trial. When notifying his mother of his death, they approached her house as if they were on a tactical raid, something which Leckie still defends. They then treated her as if she was just another 'drunk Injun' at a time when she was getting the most dreaded news any parent can possibly get.
When RCMP Commissioner Lucki said she accepted the reports findings, one chief asked rhetorically "What are you going to do about it?" The same can be said of the Liberal government that has allowed the treatment of indigenous people to continue on and on in the same old way and allowed the RCMP to delay the report's release for a year. One thing is for sure: Lucki needs to be fired for this, as well as her many other transgressions.
ETA: Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair needs to go as well for allowing this report to be buried for a year.
The family of Colten Boushie, the young Indigenous man from Saskatchewan whose shooting death was investigated by the RCMP in 2016, is speaking out following the release of an independent report that found Canada's national police force racially discriminated against Boushie's mother.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki has accepted the finding of racial discrimination along with many others detailing numerous police missteps during the investigation, including the mishandling of witnesses and evidence and the insensitive process of notifying Debbie Baptiste of her son's death. ...
The RCMP watchdog, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), also concludedthat media releases sent by police early in the investigation caused the family further anguish by fuelling perceptions that Boushie's death at the hands of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley was deserved. Baptiste said the experience did much hurt to the family, but they've been able to overcome it thanks to the support of Indigenous people. "We fought for this justice and we'll continue fighting," Baptiste said of the CRCC's findings. "If Colten could hear me now, he'd be proud that we continued fighting and we never gave up." ...
Boushie, 22, was shot and killed after he and four others from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan drove onto Stanley's property near Biggar, Sask., on Aug. 9, 2016. An altercation occurred between the people in the SUV and Stanley and his son, ending with Stanley fatally shooting Boushie. In February 2018, a jury found Stanley, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. ...
In a statement Saturday, the Saskatchewan RCMP said the CRCC's findings and recommendations will help increase the public's confidence in the police force, while a union representing some RCMP members, the National Police Federation, said the CRCC's work was biased against police and omitted some crucial facts. ...
The CRCC found evidence of discrimination during the next-of-kin notification process when it came to "the police's conduct towards Ms. Baptiste with respect to her sobriety and her credibility." The family had accused one officer of telling the grieving Baptiste to "get it together" and asking if she had been drinking. "One or more RCMP members smelled her breath," the commission wrote. ...
Eleanore Sunchild, a lawyer representing the family, told the news conference that was not acceptable. "When she fell to the floor, after they told her her son was dead, they had the nerve to smell her breath," Sunchild said, summarizing the CRCC's findings. Baptiste told officers Boushie's dinner was waiting in the microwave, the CRCC wrote. "Then they even checked the microwave where she had put her son's dinner to make sure that she was telling the truth," Sunchild said. "If that doesn't speak of discrimination and racism, I don't know what does." ...
The CRCC also found that officers acted on insufficient information when they decided the level of risk justified surrounding Baptiste's house. The RCMP also did not have the family's informed consent to search the house. RCMP Commission Brenda Lucki defended the tactical approach, citing fears about officer safety at the time, but agreed the resulting next-of-kin notification process and the search of the home were insensitive and lacked good judgment.
The National Police Federation and its president came under fire during the news conference for its comments on the CRCC's findings over the weekend. Brian Sauvé took the CRCC to task for "unconditionally" accepting the Boushie family's assertion of discrimination. ...
Chief Cameron of the FSIN called on the union to fire Sauvé for his "stupid comments." "Welcome to our world, Brian Sauvé," Cameron said. "We've been living with bias for decades. Welcome to First Nations peoples's lives."
The CRCC also examined the initial media releases the Saskatchewan RCMP issued about Boushie's death. It found they focused disproportionately on property offences linked to Boushie's friends, which cast Boushie in a negative light instead of focusing on the investigation of his killing, and fuelled online vitriol directed at the family. "Ms. Baptiste's sons William and Jace spoke to their last name being 'ruined' and associated with 'thieves,' as well as hateful messages and images about their name on social media," the commission wrote. "[They] also stated that the media release said more than what the police had told the family and that left them powerless to defend Colten's name." Sunchild, one of the family lawyers, said Monday that those releases set the tone for public discussion of the shooting. She said they gave Canadians permission to spew hatred toward the family, even recently. "I read the comments on the weekend in response to these articles about the CRCC's reporting and the hatred is the same.The social media comments are awful," Sunchild said. ...
The commission recommended that a change already made by the Saskatchewan RCMP — having Indigenous officers review media releases discussing serious incidents involving Indigenous people — be made nationwide. Lucki agreed. ...
Lucki had the commission's findings and recommendations about the family's allegations of mistreatment in hand for more than a year before she responded, according to the CRCC. That response was needed in order to make the findings public. Baptiste said it was "pure torture" waiting for the results of the CRCC's investigation. "[It] felt like we were swept under the carpet," she said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/colten-boushie-rcmp-racial-disc...