Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 13th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

For Chief Lazore and Mr. Yang, I think we'll let them both make their points.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

That will bring us to a conclusion.

We'll have Mr. Yang and then Chief Lazore.

[Derek Yang]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for the member's question.

To partly answer that question with regard to the distrust and issues with regard to law enforcement and policing specifically, historically we have had contracted policing in indigenous communities. You have people who are not from the community providing services to that community, which is why in 1992 the federal government enacted the first nations policing program and, along with that, the self-administered police service agreements, I believe.

As Chief Doss-Cody can attest, it's the success of having people who are from that community or people who are working with a service that is dedicated to the service of that specific community, and not an overarching agency like a provincial or municipal service, or even having the RCMP contracted in to provide that essential core and community policing. When you have that, you have a lot of rotational issues with RCMP officers or other officers being rotated out.

I believe Chief Bellerose spoke earlier with regard to consistently having re-engage with and re-meet new officers, and that is definitely an issue that's related to law enforcement and policing.

Having your own law enforcement services provides that essential culturally appropriate professional service, which a lot of times is not being met by contract services. That's not a blanket statement. There are some contract services that are doing great, but this underpins the importance of providing indigenous governments with the ability to have their own control and their own accountability measures for the service that's being provided.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Chief Lazore—briefly, if you could—you get the last word.

[Chief Connie Lazore]

Thank you, Chair.

I see it as being for us in Akwesasne. We have a police commission that's the operational component of the oversight of the policing services, and they are all community members, so there's a connection to our community at that level. We employ a community engagement officer who works directly with the community. He attends the schools, he goes to the events and he's in contact with our local social and health programs to ensure that policing is part of those events that are coming up. In our recruitment, our priority is indigenous members, some from our community and some from surrounding communities, but they are indigenous to us.

Then we have our capacity development component. As we mentioned earlier, we have a compliance office, and those officers have moved into policing. Then we filled the compliance officer program, but now that we have them under one umbrella, there's a connection for all of them. When we're employing our own people here, people from our community, the trust can be built and established with our members. I feel that when we're developing the laws that they will enforce, we then will have a stronger component to respecting the laws and those enforcing it. I'd like to see that our community laws are more of a compliance than an enforcement mechanism.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Those are great words to finish by. Thanks so much.

That was a great question, Ms. Zann.

To all of our witnesses, you were just remarkable. Thank you so much. Everyone played an important part in a very serious report that we will have to put together.

Before adjournment, may I remind everybody that we will continue the meeting this evening?

I'm not sure whether we adjourn the meeting or suspend the meeting, Mr. Clerk. What does the big green book say about that?

[The Clerk]

We are adjourning this meeting. It will be a new meeting this evening.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Can I have a motion to adjourn, please? Thank you, Mr. Battiste.

(Motion agreed to)

The meeting is adjourned.