Blair promises better First Nations policing

Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says First Nations policing must be made an essential service — something Indigenous leaders have been pressing the federal government to do.

The government will work with Indigenous communities to come up with a legislative framework that ensures First Nations have the policing services they need and deserve, Blair told the House of Commons public safety committee Tuesday.

“It has never been acknowledged or recognized as an essential service,” said Blair, a former Toronto police chief, as the committee began a study of systemic racism in policing.

Blair said he has begun contacting Indigenous leaders across the country to figure out how to best transform policing in their communities.

“We need to include Indigenous leadership in that discussion.”

Concerns about police brutality and discrimination have sparked rallies and cries for change around the world since the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minnesota police.

In Canada, there have been outcries over the recent police killings of Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi in New Brunswick and the battering of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam by RCMP in Alberta.

A federally commissioned report released last year said many Indigenous communities lack policing services that meet their safety and security needs despite long-standing improvement efforts.

The report by the Council of Canadian Academies said these communities are stuck with a colonial policing model that overlooks Indigenous cultural traditions and fails to create the necessary bonds of trust.