‘It’s been a week of learning,’ RCMP officer says

Police face allegations of brutality in arrest of Alberta First Nation chief

EDMONTON— One of the country’s top RCMP officers has walked back comments he made earlier this week, saying Friday he does believe Canada’s national police service has a problem with systemic racism.

Since saying Wednesday he did not believe that to be the case — sparking headlines amid a national conversation about policing and race — Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said he’s had many conversations with colleagues and community members.

“Much of that conversation has centred on racism, how it’s defined, and what it means to those affected,” he told reporters at a news conference in Edmonton. While he’d previously said he believed racism to be an issue in all aspects of society, if not a specific problem of the RCMP, he now said he’d learned otherwise.

“These have been conversations that have challenged my perceptions and made it clear that systemic racism does exist in the RCMP,” he said.

“It’s been a week of learning and understanding for me.”

The comments came a day after a video showing the arrest of Chief Allan Adam was made public, throwing fuel on the already raging national conversation about race and policing in Canada.

Adam, a well-known environmental advocate and chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan of northern Alberta, has accused the police of brutality after an interaction in March left him with a black eye, his face streaked with blood. He’s facing charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, while the RCMP have said their members’ actions that night were “reasonable.”

Zablocki declined to comment on Adam’s case Friday, but said his new stance was unrelated to recent criticism of his comments and handling of race issues.

“I felt compelled to come out and express and communicate my feelings around this, as soon as I could,” he said.

Zablocki said he’d reflected on the fact his perception of racism came from a place of observation, rather than personal experience.

He said he’d spent a lot of time this week getting a “better perspective.”

“As I did some research and googling it, it just became clear in a multitude of terms from implicit and explicit bias, unconscious bias, individual racism, systemic racism, structural racism,” he said.

“And I really needed to better understand systemic racism,” Zablocki added.

He also acknowledged that the RCMP historically “haven’t done everything right.”

In terms of future progress, he said the RCMP needed to dig into its policies and procedures and make sure they are inclusive and equitable.

He also said hiring and training practices needed to be examined.

“We’re going to challenge assumptions, we’re going to look for positive changes and positive ways to enhance our service delivery,” Zablocki said.

“For example, we’re just building a reconciliation strategy for the province for our division here in Alberta.”

But criticism of Alberta RCMP’s handling of race is likely to smoulder. A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Bill Blair called the officers’ action in the video “a disturbing level of force.”

Meanwhile, the investigation into Adam’s allegations is under investigation by the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team. The chief’s lawyer has filed a motion for his charges to be stayed.