Members of Parliament will hold an emergency debate in the House of Commons Monday evening on a string of recent deaths of First Nations people during interactions with Canadian police forces.
Six First Nations people have died in the last two weeks at the hands of police officers, which NDP MP Lori Idlout characterizes as a “disturbing pattern.”
She wrote a letter to House Speaker Greg Fergus calling for the emergency debate, lambasting what she called a lack of media coverage of the deaths and inaction by the government to pass legislation on First Nations policing.
“As parliamentarians, it is on us to show leadership and take responsibility to keep our institutions accountable. People across Canada must know their Parliament is addressing the institutional violence in their communities as a critical and immediate priority,” she wrote.
“There is a clear, urgent interest for Parliament to debate this disturbing pattern, so …