Public Safety committee  Thank you. I just want to acknowledge the territory that I'm on right now, the Shuswap territory in British Columbia. Seeing that I only have seven minutes, I just want to thank everybody for this very important matter in terms of policing. I think, during this pandemic since

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that question, Mr. Vidal. I think the example you gave of a small community is a perfect example of how the RCMP needs to relate to the governance. For my first nations community.... I am from the Takla Lake First Nation. We have three police

Public Safety committee  Thank you for that question. At this moment, what we really need to change, in terms of the overhaul for policing, is in large municipalities. It is the help that many of the social organizations need. A good example, if you look at Winnipeg, is the poor side of town. In Vancouv

Public Safety committee  No, I don't have any of those statistics about how long they stay. Just as an example, for my first nations community, it's really newly trained police officers. They are required to stay, I believe, for two years. Some stay longer because they appreciate the community, but I don

Public Safety committee  I think these complaints need to be addressed, and I'm sure it's much more than that, because quite frankly I know there are complaints throughout this country. I really think it speaks to the racism that exists within policing and also this country in general. We've seen in man

Public Safety committee  I think that the goal is really to assert our first nations rights within the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, our sovereignty and self-determination, in terms of our view of...I suppose the colonial word is “policing”. For first nations, it's more

Public Safety committee  Overall, just in general, we need our own police forces. There's one that exists here in British Columbia, and there are many others in Ontario and other provinces. In terms of involvement and retention within the RCMP, there's a pending class action lawsuit in regard to racist

Public Safety committee  I don't know if it should be separate. It depends on the situation, with perhaps it could be separate if there is training needed to go into really remote and rural areas, but I think overall what we're seeing is that the incarceration and deaths of first nations, Inuit and Métis

Public Safety committee  Really importantly, there needs to be an independent review, a truly independent review, not necessarily police reviewing police but a civilian review that looks at the actions of many police officers. Just in general, I suppose the training needs to be reviewed as well in terms

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. [Witness spoke in Dakelh] [English] I just wanted to acknowledge the territory I'm calling from, the unceded, unsurrendered and continually occupied territory of the Lheidli T'enneh, the Dakelh people. I appreciate the opportunity to speak here today on behalf of t

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In general, the Indian Act has historically created barriers for many first nations in terms of accessing the proper ability to break away from some of these issues. The Indian Act, in terms of relations to first nations is far too often.... Much of what has come out of the India

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Exactly. In terms of police services, once again, it's going from program funding to essential services funding. More importantly, in terms of economic development, more often than not, we're looking at different types of partnerships that would allow us to really create those sp

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, certainly, it's whatever is necessary for first nations to take over. That sounds like a good partnership, whether it's with the province or the federal government. We have some examples here in British Columbia, but I think overall, moving towards.... That sounds like a goo

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, federally and provincially, the general idea is using these previous formulas, if you will. For example, there's an allocation for distribution of funds for things like coming out of COVID, and they would allocate a certain amount. Because you are 2% of the population, we'll

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Certainly, per capita is necessary in some of these matters, such as during COVID and the allocation similar to CERB for on-reserve funding. Overall, in terms of investment, it depends on the investment in the first nations communities, especially in those regions—let's say nor