Top Mountie recants denial amid resignation calls
‘Here we are in 2020, the top brass of the RCMP are tip-toeing around it’: lawyer
EDMONTON The province’s top RCMP officer is walking back comments he made earlier this week denying systemic racism exists within the service, the same day a group representing over 200 Alberta defence lawyers called for his resignation.
On Monday, Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki was speaking at a news conference after Alberta’s police watchdog announced charges against two officers involved in a deadly 2018 shooting in Whitecourt. He said he didn’t “believe that racism is systemic through Canadian policing, I don’t believe it’s systemic through policing in Alberta.”
On Friday, Zablocki said he has since had conversations with community and Indigenous leaders, colleagues and other police chiefs as well as researched what systemic racism is and has changed his mind.
“Much of that conversation has centred on racism, how it’s defined and what it means to those affected,” Zablocki said. “These have been conversations that have challenged my perceptions and made it clear that systemic racism does exist in the RCMP.”
His statement echoes that of RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who acknowledged Friday systemic racism exists within the service.
However, Zablocki said his reversal was not related to the Alberta Criminal Trial Lawyers Association calling for his resignation or dashcam footage released Thursday that shows Chief Allan Adam, the leader of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, being tackled and punched during an arrest by two Wood Buffalo RCMP officers. The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is investigating the March 10 incident and asking witnesses to contact them.
“It’s been a week of reflecting, of course, it’s been a week of learning and understanding for me when it comes to the conversation around systemic racism and what that means,” Zablocki said. “I felt compelled to come out and express and communicate my feelings around this as soon as I could.”
Earlier Friday, Richard Mirasty and Tom Engel of the Alberta Criminal Trial Lawyers’ Association said Zablocki should resign or be dismissed over his comments denying systemic racism.
“If you run an organization and you can’t acknowledge what the Supreme Court of Canada has acknowledged since (the early ’90s), then maybe you should move on,” said Mirasty, an Edmonton defence lawyer, in an interview. “Things are different. You have to acknowledge what everyone else has.”
The Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre defines systemic racism as “the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions, which result in the exclusion or promotion of designated groups” and says “it differs from overt discrimination in that no individual intent is necessary.”
Mirasty, a Cree man from Saskatchewan, said examples of systemic racism within the justice system are “endemic.” He said Indigenous and Black communities are “over-policed,” saying as a young man he was manhandled by RCMP officers and had an officer point a gun at him.
He said Indigenous and black people are also more likely to be denied bail and parole as well as be killed or injured in interactions with police.
Mirasty added the top tier of the RCMP leadership “does not reflect” society at large, and that Zablocki was the head of the RCMP in Saskatchewan during the investigation into the death of Colten Boushie. At the time of Boushie’s death, the RCMP was accused by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations of putting prejudicial information in news releases.
Zablocki said the RCMP will listen to and work with communities to learn and understand and foster inclusion, such as building a reconciliation strategy for the province.
“We’re going to challenge assumptions, we’re going to look for positive changes and positive ways to enhance our service delivery,” he said.
But Mirasty feels Zablocki is backtracking because “his feet are to the fire.”
“It’s long been recognized antiblack racism and anti-indigenous racism is endemic in the criminal justice system and here we are in 2020, the top brass of the RCMP are tip-toeing around it.”