A Wet'suwet'en woman from B.C., along with seven other women, arrived at Ottawa's Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, to demand action against police violence and its impacts and demand a federal inquiry into police killings.
Oct. 22 is International Day Against Police Brutality. About two dozen people gathered on Parliament Hill, including the families of eight people who died.
"All too often, we are forced to fight alone and care for the family members left behind. The public has lost sight of the bigger picture: there is no justice for our people when they are killed by police. I am looking to the federal government, an institution that remains indifferent and unkind to my people, to publicly reckon with the statistics and stories of Indigenous communities who have been denied justice," said Laura Holland at Parliament Hill, demanding an immediate response from Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc and RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme.
"Someone must account for our loved ones - including the nine people most recently killed by the RCMP."
Holland is the mother of Jared "Jay" Lowndes, who was killed on July 8, 2021, by the Campbell River RCMP at the Willow Point Tim Hortons' parking lot. During the incident, a police dog was also killed, and the dog's handler was injured before shots were fired.
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B.C.'s Independent Investigations Office (IIO) recommended charges against three officers involved in Lowndes' death by shooting in 2022, stating, "reasonable grounds exist to believe that three officers may have committed offences in relation to various uses of force." The IIO referred the case to the B.C. Crown Counsel for consideration after its investigation concluded in October 2023.
The BC Prosecution Service came to its conclusion on April 23, 2024. They concluded that the evidence available did not meet their charge assessment standard.
The three police officers involved were never publicly identified.
RELATED: No Charges in RCMP killing of Jared Lowndes shocks First Nations leaders
Holland and her family have been organizing events under the banner of Justice for Jared to speak out against police killings of Indigenous people. Earlier this year, Justice For Jared called for a public and independent provincial inquiry into killings of Indigenous people in BC.
Between Aug. 29 and Sep. 18, nine Indigenous people were killed by police. Tracking In Justice, a living data set tracking Canadian police-involved deaths and deaths in custody has recorded 129 police-involved deaths of Indigenous people since 2000, with 66 involving the RCMP.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree earlier said the recent string of deaths was troubling and he encouraged police services to ensure accountability and build trust.
"We must work together with Indigenous partners. We have a responsibility to advance Indigenous-led solutions that address the needs of communities and ensure their safety and security," he said in a statement on social media.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson from Anandasangaree's office said the department will support what communities want and need to address the issue.
A similar call for a police inquiry was raised last week as the Assembly of First Nations gathered in Calgary.
At that meeting, Blood Tribe Chief Roy Fox spoke on behalf of member Jon Wells and his family, and called for a public inquiry into his death.
"We have not received any kind of support or any kind of sign of empathy from the provincial government, nor the federal government," Fox told the assembly's attendees.
MPs also had an emergency debate last month about the deaths, with NDP MP Lori Idlout calling it a "disturbing pattern."
In a letter to House Speaker Greg Fergus asking for the debate, Idlout lambasted what she called a lack of media coverage of the issue 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 that parliamentarians can discuss immediate measures that can be taken to save Indigenous lives, today."
Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the national chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said the deaths demonstrate systemic issues across the country. She demanded accountability from police through independent investigations into each of the deaths.
"Time and again, we have witnessed the consequences of law enforcement’s failure to employ de-escalation techniques and culturally informed practices," she said in a statement last month.
"We will continue to call for action to address these failures and expect full transparency in cases where lives have been needlessly lost."
The families gathered in Ottawa on Tuesday said any potential inquiry must be Indigenous-led and include national data. They also said no federal ministers or opposition parties have agreed to meet with them to discuss the matter.
"This is also an invitation for the federal government to reckon publicly with the statistics that are often obscured," said Meenakshi Mannoe, a community organizer with the Defund 604 Network.
"As Laura Holland mentioned, this violence against Black and Indigenous people is actually quite fundamental to Canada, and it is actually a part of how this state exists. The state exists because Indigenous people are under constant threat of police death and police fatality."
—with files from Canadian Press
