‘Is that the best?’ minister asks of RCMP racism effort
OTTAWA — Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller delivered a rebuke of Canada’s national police force Thursday, saying the Mounties are not immune to systemic racism and that they can and should do better.
His remarks came as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed confidence in RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki after the top Mountie said she is struggling with the definition of systemic racism within the force.
Lucki made the comments during media interviews this week. She was responding to allegations of bias and discrimination in the federal police force and others across Canada after several violent interactions between authorities and Indigenous Peoples.
Miller refused to pass judgment on Lucki over her comments, but did point to the apology she delivered in 2018 on behalf of the RCMP to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
In it, Lucki promised to “examine the systemic causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada, and prevent and eliminate further violence.”
Miller said Thursday scrutiny of this promise is warranted.
“She undertook to do better and that the RCMP and Indigenous Peoples were entitled to the best there was of the RCMP,” Miller.
“That was a promise two years ago. Now, I look at the events of the last couple of weeks … and I ask myself, ‘Is that the best? Is that the absolute best?’ Because that was the promise that was made two years ago.”
As for the lingering question of whether systemic racism exists within the RCMP, Miller said the answer is a clear and simple yes.
But he also said this doesn’t mean every cop or individual is a racist. “We can’t deny that there is systemic racism in all our institutions. It isn’t by some magical stroke of fate that the RCMP would be immune to that. We know it exists and we have to acknowledge it,” Miller told reporters in Ottawa.
“We are at our best when we question ourselves, when we question our instincts and I think that’s something that needs to be done because I know we’re turning around an issue that we do need to re-examine in the RCMP and there’s no question about it.”
In his defence of Lucki, Trudeau said he has worked closely with her over the years and that he trusts the commissioner to lead reforms at the RCMP.
“We’re facing a really important time in our country right now where we are recognizing what many Indigenous Canadians and racialized Canadians have known for a long time — that there is systemic discrimination right across our country and every part of our country and in our institutions. And recognizing that is difficult,” Trudeau said in Ottawa.
“I have confidence in Commissioner Lucki,” he said, “and I know that the changes that she has already begun to bring to our national police force and the work that we’re going to be doing together in the coming months is going to make a huge difference in combating systemic racism and reducing it in this country.”