OTTAWA –
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations is calling on politicians of all stripes to support a national inquiry into systemic racism in policing and police-related deaths of First Nations people, calling it a human rights issue that requires commitment from all leaders.
“For too long, First Nations people have been subjected to colonial police violence in Canada. It’s not acceptable for First Nations people, and I don’t believe this is acceptable to other Canadians either,” Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said with two mothers directly touched by the issue standing behind her.
A resolution passed by consensus at a special chiefs assembly Tuesday says despite 20 individual inquiries and commissions into the police and justice system since 1989, the federal government has failed to make substantive changes to address systemic racism within the …