B.C. First Nation launches lawsuit against RCMP for failing to enforce band bylaws [Video]

The Heiltsuk First Nation has launched a Charter challenge lawsuit against the RCMP in B.C. Supreme Court for what it says is failing to enforce band council bylaws.

The lawsuit claims the force’s ongoing failure to enforce trespass bylaws on Heiltsuk reserve lands duly enacted under the Indian Act “amounts to unequal and discriminatory treatment that infringes their section 15 Charter rights to receive equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination.”

The nation, joined by Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, stated on Tuesday morning that the RCMP’s failure to enforce is a Canada-wide problem that “erodes the rule of law in First Nations communities, exacerbates systemic problems involving substance abuse, mental health issues, and violence against women and girls; and deprives First Nation governments of the necessary tools to protect their communities.”

Marilyn Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, said that when the RCMP “refuses” …