Top Mountie now says ‘systemic racism’ exists
Commissioner vows RCMP will ‘double down’ to increase diversity
OTTAWA— Canada’s top Mountie now admits there is “systemic racism” in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that reforms are needed at “all levels” of policing to address entrenched discrimination against Black, Indigenous and other racialized Canadians. The admission by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki came just days after she questioned whether systemic racism exists in the national police force.
“I do know that systemic racism is part of every institution, the RCMP included,” Lucki said in a statement released by the RCMP on Friday, vowing to “double down” on efforts to increase diversity in police training, decision-making and recruitment. “Throughout our history and today, we have not always treated racialized and Indigenous people fairly. There is no one answer, no single solution, no one approach. It is the ongoing commitment to work and continue to learn that will help us make real progress and I am motivated and determined to make change.”
Hours earlier, Trudeau said he has “serious questions” about a new video that shows Mounties wrestling the chief of an Alberta First Nation to the ground in a parking lot. Trudeau called for a “transparent” investigation into the incident and said changes to policing should happen “quickly” to address racism in law enforcement. But the prime minister has yet to spell out the extent of the changes he envisions, leaving opposition leaders to accuse him of paying lip service to the burgeoning anti-racism movement that started in the United States and has since spread across Canada and around the world.
“It is not good enough for the prime minister just to say pretty words, to acknowledge that there is systemic racism. The prime minister has the power to do something about it,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told the Star by phone Friday.
“I’m actually astounded that, weeks after this pivotal moment in the history of the world, seeing the casual antiBlack violence that led to the death of George Floyd, that there hasn’t been an announcement of any concrete change in policy or legislation in Canada in response to that.”
Speaking earlier at a news conference on Parliament Hill, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called on Trudeau to move beyond “empty words” and provide more resources to investigate complaints against the RCMP. “Justin Trudeau has done nothing about these types of things. He’s indicating that there are issues with the RCMP with systemic racism. Precisely what is he going to do about it?
He’s been prime minister of this country for almost five years now. He has done nothing about it,” Scheer said.
Trudeau has called for more body cameras for police officers to wear, and said Friday he raised that request during a call with Canada’s premiers and with RCMP Commissioner Lucki earlier this week. Trudeau also said the government needs to improve how it collects race-based data to better understand “how our systems are unfair towards certain Canadians.”
Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, meanwhile, has promised new legislation to support First Nations policing.
But Trudeau suggested Friday further change is needed to address racism in policing, without specifying what reforms his government will pursue.
“We need to look at the entire system to improve it, to make sure that situations like this don’t happen in the future and that our police officers who are there to protect and serve all Canadians are able to do that,” Trudeau told reporters outside his residence at Rideau Cottage. Trudeau’s spokesperson, Cameron Ahmad, later told the Star the government is not ready to elaborate on reforms it will pursue beyond what the prime minister has already mentioned. “We’re talking about accelerating action,” he said, adding the government will have more to say in the “coming days and weeks.”
The calls for action from the opposition came after new video of the arrest in March of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam. The video — released as Adam’s lawyer tries to get charges of assault and resisting arrest against the chief stayed — shows Adam tackled and wrestled to the ground by police officers.
The incident is being investigated by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, which oversees police conduct in the province.
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission, a federal agency charged with probing RCMP conduct, is also “monitoring the situation closely” and will decide whether to start its own investigation in the coming weeks, spokesperson Kate McDerby told the Star by email.
McDerby said the agency has also completed its “systemic investigations” into the RCMP’s use of strip searches and its crime reduction units, and will deliver reports to the police force next month. The agency is also aiming to finish its investigation into the RCMP’s use of street checks — a controversial practice also known as “carding” — and deliver a report this fall, McDerby said.
In his interview with the Star on Friday, Singh said the federal government should move quickly to prohibit the RCMP from conducting street checks. Extensive reporting by the Star has shown the practice allowed police in Toronto to disproportionately stop and document personal information of racialized people.