(Quebec) Groups representing the First Nations are delighted with a recent judgment which concludes that the governments have behaved in a “dishonorable” manner by underfunding the Aboriginal police forces.
The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) and other groups are now calling on Quebec and Ottawa to implement the unanimous decision rendered last Thursday by the Quebec Court of Appeal.
“This is another eloquent example of systemic racism that must end,” denounces Gilbert Dominique, Chief of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation in Mashteuiatsh, Lac-Saint-Jean.
The Court of Appeal last week ordered Quebec and Ottawa to reimburse $1.6 million to the Mashteuiatsh band council. She concludes that governments behaved dishonorably by underfunding the police force of this Innu community.
The issue of aboriginal police forces goes back a long way. Relations between police and Aboriginals have been difficult for a long time, recalls the Court, citing “the massive slaughter of sled dogs in Nunavik in the late 1950s by officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the SQ” .
The Court denounces the “total insensitivity” of Quebec
In 1990, the Federal Task Force on Policing Policy on Indian Reserves released a report which concluded that First Nations had access to inferior policing services.
A year later, Ottawa adopted its First Nations Police Policy and outlined the establishment of Indigenous police forces. This policy provides that Ottawa will finance 52% of the budget of the Aboriginal police forces and the provinces 48%.
However, for years, First Nations have been denouncing underfunding. The Viens Commission report noted in 2019 that “underfunding of Indigenous policing is a major and long-standing problem.” The report speaks in particular of the salaries of Indigenous police officers in Quebec “often 40 or even 50% lower” than those of the police officers of the Sûreté du Québec.
Before the Court of Appeal, Quebec argued that Indigenous communities could choose to receive SQ services for free, unlike municipalities, which must pay. This argument did not impress the judges.
According to them, Quebec is showing “total insensitivity” by presenting such an argument. “The Viens Commission, as we have seen, concluded that the mistrust and dissatisfaction of the First Nations with regard to the Sûreté du Québec had nothing to do with a whim,” write the judges.
The lawsuit by the Innus of Mashteuiatsh aimed to recover $1.6 million in deficit incurred from 2013 to 2018 to compensate for this underfunding.
The Press wrote to the office of the Minister of Public Security to find out whether Quebec intends to comply with the decision or appeal it. The judgment could have consequences for all other Indigenous police forces in Quebec and Canada.
“Governments must take note of this and act,” says AFNQL Chief Ghislain Picard.