Alberta’s police watchdog says there’s no evidence an offence was committed when Mounties tackled a prominent First Nation chief and punched him in the face during an arrest outside a Fort McMurray, Alta., casino in 2020.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team also said in a report released Thursday that there’s no evidence of racist treatment by the officers against Allan Adam, who has been chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation for about two decades.
“A police officer’s use of force, in law, is not to be assessed on a standard of perfection nor using the benefit of hindsight and the opportunity to consider alternatives with the luxury of time,” ASIRT executive director Michael Ewenson said in the report.
“Under these circumstances, the use of force employed … was necessary to gain control as …