RCMP targeting reserve residents?

I was driving off the Blood Reserve toward Coalhurst the Sunday of Canada Day weekend. The RCMP had a checkpoint set up for licence, registration and insurance at the corner of Highway 3 and the Standoff turnoff. At least 10 cars were waiting their fate on the side of the road. One was being towed, presumably for not having proof of documents.

This incident bothered me profoundly because I could not help but think that it was a targeted practice. Why else set up at this turnoff? Very few people from Lethbridge (who are not First Nations) go this way.

Setting up a checkpoint where it is known that many drivers will be uninsured or have lapsed documents seems like a cynical use of police power. Such targeting was denounced in Ferguson, Missouri. The U.S. Attorney General found that the police “overwhelmingly arrested and issued traffic citations to blacks to boost city coffers through fines, used police as a collection agency and created a culture of distrust...” (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ferguson-justice).

I would hate to think that the RCMP is using practices similar to our neighbours to the south. What does such a targeted practice accomplish, besides penalizing the poor and contributing to distrust of the police? It is a common sentiment on the reserve that the RCMP has no problem arresting or citing people, but does not show up when people are in need of help. This sort of targeted practice does nothing to dissuade this perception.

Moreover, there are few (steady and reliable) options to get to and from Standoff without a car. To take a reserve resident’s vehicle is to take their means of employment and their ability to access food and higher education. Yes, it is the law to have these documents. But people lack them not because they are delinquents, but, ironically, due to lack of mobility or lack of money. Does impounding people’s cars and indebting them actually make us safer?

Late June and July are ceremony season. There were several Sundances going on this weekend, which was why I, as a Lethbridge resident, was there. That it is ceremony season — a time when the Blackfoot renew their spirits, when great personal sacrifices are made, and balance restored — and Canada Day weekend made the RCMP’s presence even more upsetting. Imagine leaving ceremony on Canada’s 150th and being immediately reminded that you don’t belong in your own land.

Lucia Stavig

Lethbridge