Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will be pleased to comment on that.
In 2015, Anishinabe women, that is to say Algonquin women in the Val-d'Or region, made some major allegations. They spoke out against police brutality, which includes sexual assault, physical force and the “starlight tour,” as you called it.
The “geographical cure,” as we call it, is the arrest of indigenous women who are intoxicated. They take them miles away in the middle of winter and let them walk back. That is the “geographical cure.” They do it just like that, perhaps for fun. I don't know.
So those women spoke out in 2015. Thirty-seven cases were opened. However, following our request for investigations, out of those 37 cases entrusted to the independent investigations office (BEI), only two were pursued.
Those two files involved an indigenous police officer who worked in the far north and a non-indigneous police officer who has now committed suicide. However, there was no investigation into the other police officers, who were from the Sûreté du Québec. That means that no case was ever investigated.
Is that right? I am asking the question.
On May 3, in Montreal, a woman in psychological distress cried out for help. There was a long negotiation with an indigenous street worker, and she finally agreed to call 911 to ask for an ambulance. Instead of an ambulance, 17 police officers arrived with the canine unit.
Are those not concrete examples of systemic discrimination and racism? I believe they are.
We also talk about racial profiling, because when you call 911, you have to describe who is asking for help. In this case, with an intoxicated indigenous woman who was in psychological distress, the police came.