Report calls for probe into police
Watchdog documents 64 cases of alleged abuse of indigenous women
Indigenous women in Saskatchewan have been subjected to violence, strip searches and other mistreatment by police, according to a report from a human rights watchdog group that was quickly criticized by police agencies.
The 32-page report from New-York-based Human Rights Watch said that the group documented 64 allegations of violence and abuse during a visit last year to the province that included talks with indigenous women and social workers.
In preparing the report, the group also conducted interviews with administration at the Saskatoon Police Service, Regina Police Service, Prince Albert Police Service and RCMP.
“The findings of this investigation do demonstrate unquestionably that indigenous women experience violence and severe abuse through their interactions with police and the RCMP in Saskatchewan and that these cases mirror a wider pattern of violence by police services across Canada,” said Jaskiran Dhillon, a New York researcher involved with the study.
The women’s accounts “raise serious concerns about policing practices and tactics used in indigenous communities,” said Farida Dief, the Canada director of Human Rights Watch.
“These past and more recent policing failures contribute to a climate of mistrust and a widely held feeling that the police targets and discriminates against indigenous people with little accountability for misconduct,” Dief said.
“The legacy of settler colonialism and racist assimilation policies — particularly the residential school system — still overshadow the present-day dynamics between police and indigenous communities,” the report states.
The allegations include:
A Prince Albert woman who
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said an officer at a traffic stop in 2014 grabbed her ear and started hitting her because she didn’t want to leave her car with her child in it;
A woman who said she was stripsearched
■ by a male RCMP officer in Regina in 2014, and told to remove all her clothing despite asking for a female officer to conduct the search;
A woman who said Saskatoon
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police stripped another, very intoxicated woman and threw her violently into an adjoining cell in 2015.
The report makes 16 recommendations, including a call for an independent, civilian-led unit to investigate alleged police misconduct, instead of allowing police to investigate their own. The report also calls for more female officers to perform strip searches of women, and more training for police officers on indigenous history.
Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill said any complaints against police that could be criminal are forwarded to the Crown prosecutor’s office to see if charges should be laid.
He said police need complaints with details that can be investigated and addressed.
Audio and video recordings of the police detention unit are kept as failsafes to “justify what happened or (see) if we did something wrong,” he said.
“As a police chief I find it very serious when allegations like this come forward and I have no way to go back and check or see what happened or try to make amends to the person.”
Community organizer Sheela McLean said indigenous people are “specifically targeted” for arrest for public intoxication compared to non-indigenous people.
Weighill said police don’t keep data on the races of people brought in for public intoxication, so it is not possible to make that comparison.
Assistant Commissioner Curtis Zablocki of the RCMP said he also wants information to investigate.
“We need to hold our folks accountable. If there’s substance behind the allegations, it’s really incumbent on us to ensure there’s accountability,” Zablocki said.
Policy around strip searches that was revisited nationally last August added “rigour” to that process — strip searches need to be authorized by a supervisor, must be based on reasonable grounds to believe the prisoner has weapons or dangerous items or evidence in an investigation.
The searches are done in privacy, and, whenever possible, done by officers who are the same sex as the prisoner, “However, in very exigent circumstances, that might not be practical,” Zablocki said.
Deputy police chief Dean Rae of the Regina Police Service (RPS) denied the allegation of strip searches of women by male officers.
“It doesn’t happen,” Rae said.