(Montreal) Ottawa will have to pay three Ontario Aboriginal police services the funds required for their activities for the next 12 months, without conditions.
Judge Denis Gascon, of the Federal Court, orders the federal Ministry of Public Security to pay “at least the amounts resulting from the last tripartite agreements for the fiscal period 2022-2023”. It is, according to the 65-page decision of the magistrate, the health and safety of the citizens of the indigenous communities concerned.
The three police forces in question, the Treaty No.oh 3 (SPT3), the UCCM Anishinaabe Police Service and the Anishinabek Police Service (SPA), serve 45 First Nations representing some 55,000 people in the affected communities.
They had been deprived of federal funding since the expiry of the previous agreement on March 31.
Federal money is provided under the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program which determines funding for law enforcement in 425 Indigenous communities. Ottawa contributes 52% of the budget, the other 48% being borne by the provinces and territories.
Prohibitions of certain expenses
The heart of the dispute concerned the will of the Aboriginal communities to free themselves from a section of the agreement which limits the way in which the police forces can spend federal money. Ottawa, for its part, maintains that it cannot modify this agreement.
Judge Gascon did not want to go so far as to invalidate the disputed section, pointing out that the substance of this question remained to be decided before another body, but he exempts the three police forces from it. And above all, it agrees with the Aboriginal communities on the need for the court to intervene and its jurisdiction to issue an injunction “in order to prevent any damage caused to public safety and the personal safety of the members of the Aboriginal communities served”.
“Irreparable harm”
According to the judge, “the Aboriginal communities served by the three police forces will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction is not granted”.
The question of financially supporting Aboriginal police forces does not even arise, underlines Justice Gascon, according to whom “it is indisputable that Aboriginal communities have a long and difficult history with the criminal justice system in Canada and with non-political police services. -indigenous “.
Reviewing the history of the negotiations, the judge noted that the federal government had offered last February to improve its financial support to add resources. However, the indigenous leaders had demanded that the restrictions on the use of the money be removed, as these were contrary to the principle of self-determination of the indigenous peoples.
Ottawa argued that the spending bans challenged by Indigenous leaders were binding and were virtually immutable.
False and troubling claims
However, Judge Gascon is harsh on Public Security Canada (PSC) and its minister, Marco Mendicino. On the one hand, he notes “the absence of any convincing logic or justification supporting SSC’s position” regarding the prohibitions on certain expenditures. Moreover, he notes that Minister Mendicino withdrew one of the contested spending bans, namely that of paying to call in specialized police units.
“Ironically, SSC and the Minister repeatedly assert that they are ‘constrained’ by the terms and conditions of the Program, when they themselves have the ability to amend them at will and can unilaterally change what those constraints are. .
“With all due respect, writes the judge later, it is fundamentally wrong – and rather troubling – to see Canada, SPC and Minister Mendicino continue to qualify the listed prohibitions [dans l’entente] of “constraint” when the evidence clearly demonstrates that SSC can decide unilaterally to modify any provision [de l’entente] according to his pleasure and will. »
Consequences across the country?
This outcome could have a ripple effect for other Aboriginal police forces. The Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, Ghislain Picard, welcomed this decision in a press release.
“The Court has clearly ruled that the Department of Public Safety Canada is not constrained by its own funding policies or ongoing processes, rather, it chooses instead to underfund First Nations policing. and to apply discriminatory policies against them, which is unacceptable. Although I am delighted with the results of this motion submitted to the Federal Court, we should never have come to this,” said Mr. Picard.
“Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must stop endangering the safety of First Nations people across the country,” he continued, concluding that they must recognize the services of First Nations police “as the essential service that they truly are”.