Thank you so much, Chair.
The first questions I want to ask are for Madam Nepinak. It's a pleasure to have you here. I know your son, Chief Nepinak, very well, and he always speaks so highly of you and of the work you've done for so long on ending violence against indigenous women and girls.
I want to focus specifically on police. You spoke about a distrust between police and indigenous people, and I think it's for good reason. I'm going to give a couple of examples and I want you to answer how you think we need to mend the relationship. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls certainly provided calls for justice.
Eishia Hudson in Winnipeg was shot dead by police. There's currently an inquest. On Wet'suwet'en territory, we saw two RCMP officers with a guard dog, a chainsaw and an axe take down a door on the other side of which were two unarmed indigenous women.
One of the most horrific and disgusting acts of police abuse of power was actually in northern Manitoba, with former RCMP officer Theriault. An article says, “Theriault and another constable had arrested the woman at a party and placed her in a cell until she sobered up. Six hours after she was brought in, Theriault returned to the detachment out of uniform and asked for her to be released into his care”, which he was allowed to do by the supervising officer, who reportedly said, “You arrested her, you can do whatever the f--- you want to do.”
I don't know if I have the quote right, but it's hard to forget. It was something to that effect.
So there are real reasons why there's mistrust. It's not hysteria. It goes beyond stereotypes. This relationship is severely, severely tainted.
What kinds of steps need to be taken to improve the relationship, to ensure that should indigenous women and girls and gender-diverse people have involvement with police, not only will the relationship be amended but their safety will be ensured?