Chapter 8 Killing in the Name Of Police Killings of Indigenous People in Canada

Contexts: Criminal (In)justice Systems

To contextualize the deaths of Indigenous people at the hands of police in Canada, one can look at events that occurred over a few weeks in February 2018. These events involved four people who lost their lives. Two at the hands of civilians—white men—who were named publicly and became subjects of public outrage and two at the hands of police, whose identities have never been revealed, with little public, media, or criminal justice system attention.

The first two cases, the deaths of Tina Fontaine and Colten Boushie, respectively gained public attention in the Raymond Cormier and Gerald Stanley trials for the killings of Indigenous youth. In these verdicts, both men were found not guilty. In that same two-week period between the Stanley and Cormier verdicts, two more events occurred in the northern Ontario town of Timmins that left two Indigenous people dead through interactions with police. Officers in the small northern Ontario city shot and killed Joey Knapaysweet, 21, on Saturday, 3 February 2018. Then, on Sunday, 4 February, Agnes Sutherland, 62, died in police custody. Both victims were from Fort Albany First Nation, a James Bay community. These police killings have been less remarked upon and received much less attention than other highly publicized cases.

The lack of justice that Indigenous victims feel, as expressed in the Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier verdicts, can be contrasted with the especially harsh treatment of Indigenous people in other facets of the criminal justice system in Canada. It is well documented that Indigenous people in Canada are disproportionately targeted and processed by the criminal justice systems in Canada. While Indigenous people in Canada make up about 4.3% of the population, they represent more than 25% of prisoners. Over the decade between 2005 and 2015, the number of Indigenous prisoners grew by 50% compared to an overall growth of 10%. In some regions of Canada, Indigenous people are incarcerated at rates 33 times higher than non-Indigenous people. Furthermore, incarceration practices are gendered as well as racialized. Indigenous women make up 37% of all women serving a sentence over two years also do what is considered harder time. For example, they overrepresented among prisoners in solitary confinement, are subjected to more maximum-security placements, and are subjected to more use-of-force interventions (Mas 2016). The criminal justice system, including the courts, have made, and continue to make, millions of dollars on processing the bodies of Indigenous people while diverting social funds and resources away from necessary social supports, as part of an ongoing colonial project. The focus of much research and writing on criminal justice systems and Indigenous people in Canada has been on incarceration, as discussed above. We need to expand our focus and analysis of state violence inflicted through criminal legal systems to include policing and, particularly, lethal force.

While numbers and details on police killings of civilians in Canada are lacking due to an absence of systematic public reporting, there are some useful resources available. According to a December 2017 briefing note prepared for then Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, more than one-third of the people shot and killed by RCMP officers over the course of a 10-year period were Indigenous (Freeze 2019). The briefing note also reported that the RCMP documented 61 cases across Canada in which their officers shot people between 2007 and 2017. According to the briefing memo, the victims of the RCMP shootings were Indigenous in 22 of those cases; a full 36% (Freeze 2019). The memo further reported that 12 of the killings, or 20% of the total, occurred either on a reserve or in what was identified as an Indigenous community (since Inuit communities are not on reserve lands) (Freeze 2019).1 In its explanation to the Public Safety Minister, the memo read:

It may appear disproportionality [sic] high that 36 per cent of fatal member-involved shootings by the RCMP deal with Indigenous subjects. However, the RCMP is unlike any other Canadian police service in that it serves over 600 Indigenous communities (approximately 67% of RCMP detachments serve aboriginal communities). (Freeze 2019)

Of significant importance, however, the memo does not indicate the population size being policed. The city of Surrey, British Columbia, for example, is a major suburban, with a population over 500,000 people; a single municipal area alone policed by the RCMP. How many of the 600 Indigenous communities referred to by the briefing note would be covered by a population over 500,000? Furthermore, the RCMP does not keep any detailed data about use-of-force cases or identity-based statistics regarding incidents where force is used.

Upon release of the briefing note, Perry Bellegarde, who was the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations at the time, spoke to the disproportionate and unacceptable nature of the RCMP’s use of lethal violence against Indigenous people. In his response, he said:

We’re 5 per cent of the [overall] population—of course it’s surprising. Thirty-six per cent of the fatalities from the RCMP are First Nations people? That’s totally unacceptable. We call for immediate action to end the killing of our people. It’s a highly disproportionate rate. No question. (Freeze 2019)

A 2017 analysis by criminologist Scot Wortley, of data compiled by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, found similarly that Indigenous people were disproportionately the victims of lethal force by police. In that project, Wortley analyzed a five-year data set on fatal shootings that involved all police forces in Canada. Based on the data he accessed, Wortley concluded that the “police-related civilian-death” rate for Indigenous people was over three times the national average in Canada (Freeze 2019). More recent research has reinforced this finding. A 2020 CTV News analysis found an Indigenous person in Canada to be over ten times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by a police officer. Between 2017 and 2020, at least 25 Indigenous people were shot and killed by the RCMP alone. That analysis further showed that, since 2017, 25 of the 66 people shot and killed by Canadian police for whom race or identity could be confirmed were Indigenous. That represents almost 40 per cent of the total. When adjusted for population (based on 2016 Census data), this means that since 2017, 1.5 out of every 100,000 Indigenous Canadians have been shot and killed by police compared with 0.13 out of every 100,000 white Canadians (Flanagan 2020).

According to my own research, in 2017 there were at least 65 people who died through encounters with police (Shantz 2018). Of these, six were identified publicly as Indigenous. In 2018, there were at least 59 people left dead in police encounters. Of those, eight victims were identified as Indigenous people. In 2019, at least 58 people died through police interactions. Of these victims, nine have been publicly identified as Indigenous people. In 2020, at least 65 people died through police encounters. Where information is known of the victims, at least 13 were identified publicly as Indigenous people. As of June 2021, at minimum 40 people had been killed by Canadian police or died through police actions. At the time of writing, little personal information was available about the victims. One of the problems in conducting more thorough analysis of police lethal force is the limited documentation and publication of police data. A recent 2021 study by Wortley and his colleagues outlines challenges accessing data, even after requests were made. The researchers state that they were “disappointed—but not necessarily surprised—with the low response rate to [their] data request” (8). They devote several paragraphs to their efforts noting that many police services approached for information failed to share data for their academic study on police use of force (8–10).

Colonial Encounters

Lisa Monchalin (2016) argues that what is often viewed as “the Indian problem” is actually a colonial problem. Colonized people are expected to know and observe the priorities, values, and languages of the colonizers. If the colonized do not conform, they are often more heavily policed as a result (Crosby 2021). Sherene Razack (2015, 30) puts these colonial encounters in these terms:

A significant aspect of the relationship between Indigenous peoples and white settlers in contemporary colonial cities such as Canada’s is the seeming paradox that an astonishing indifference or callousness marks the settler’s response to Indigenous people, but this indifference occurs within intense, often daily encounters between state officials (police and health care professionals) and Indigenous populations in the city.

A colonial framework prioritizes social control and policing of peoples rather than social care, support, or service. As we will see, police are deployed even when health care, including mental health care, is needed. The police are also deployed where persons need support. Rather than receiving care, many individuals are criminalized. We can see this in the numbers of Indigenous people who die in police custody, Sean Thompson, for example, died after being arrested while in medical distress by Winnipeg police on 26 June 2019. Similarly, a coroner’s inquest in Baker Lake, Nunavut, examining the death in jail of Paul Kayuryuk in October 2012 concluded that police must “challenge assumptions” about intoxication in Inuit communities after necessary medical attention was not provided to Kayuryuk after RCMP jailed the man, who was having a stroke, on the assumption that he was drunk. I outline below further cases of police lethal violence against Indigenous people that highlights the colonial character of these encounters and the various systemic problems endured in Indigenous communities.

“Police Have Killed More Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Members than COVID”

Late in the evening of 27 February 2021, Tofino (British Columbia) RCMP shot and killed Julian Jones, a 28-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht man in a residence on Opitsaht First Nation. In a Facebook post, his brother Leo Jackson wrote: “Last night my brother Julian Jones was shot and killed by the Tofino RCMP on unceded Indian land.”

According to the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia (IIO), two officers from Tofino RCMP attended a residence on the Opitsaht First Nation at around 9:30 PM on belief that a woman was in distress. At some point after they arrived, Mr. Jones was shot and killed, and another man was arrested. A woman was located and taken to hospital “for medical assessment.”

In fact, this was the second police killing of a Tla-o-qui-aht person in less than a year. Chantel Moore, a 26-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation woman, was shot and killed by police in Edmundston, New Brunswick, during a so-called “wellness check” early in the morning of 4 June 2020. She was shot four times, including multiple times in the back, according to her family. Edmundston Police Force Inspector Steve Robinson told reporters that he did not believe that the officer in question attempted to use any non-lethal force. Members of the family and community are certain the killing is racist in nature. In the words of Chantel Moore’s grandmother, Nora Martin: “When I first heard about it, that was my first thought: ‘This was racially motivated.’ We’ve been dealing with police brutality for a number of years. I know in my own family it’s been going on for a long time” (quoted in CTV News 2020). One week after the police killing of Chantel Moore, New Brunswick RCMP shot and killed Rodney Levi, a Mi’kmaq man, in Metepenagiag First Nation (also known as Red Bank First Nation). Mr. Levi was killed while he was experiencing mental health distress on 12 June 2020.

Only months after Chantal Moore’s killing, her 23-year-old brother, Mike Martin, died at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, British Columbia’s largest provincial jail. These familial deaths show a continuation of colonial criminal justice against Indigenous people. In a statement of 20 November, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council stated that “His death was a compounding effect from the shooting of his sister on a wellness check. One horrific injustice imperilled the life of another. The police officer that took Chantal’s life inevitably took another” (quoted in Little 2020).

On 3 March 2021, the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation released a statement that questioned the RCMP’s use of deadly force against them:

It is incomprehensible to see such unnecessary loss of life at the hands of the RCMP. Nine months ago, our Nation put forward a list of recommendations to support better interactions with police and to reduce police brutality. To date, none of the recommendations have been followed up on and the RCMP/police have killed more TFN members than COVID has. (Bailey 2021).

On 7 June, it was announced that charges would not be brought against Constable Jeremy Son, the officer who killed Chantal Moore. An investigation into the killing had been carried out by Québec’s police oversight agency, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), because New Brunswick has no such oversight body. The BEI is not an independent body and relies on police forces to carry out their investigations. In the conclusion of this investigation, the BEI report found that officer Son was justified in his actions, in part, because he claimed Chantal Moore appeared “angry with a furrowed brow.” This is but one of many examples where officers have enjoyed impunity. It is not common for criminal charges to be brought against a police officer who has killed (see Puddister and McNabb 2021). Of the 460 fatal incidents involving police between 2000 and 2017, only three murder charges have been laid against police officers, and all of which were second-degree (Kim 2019).

Chantal Moore’s family has since called for a public inquiry into systemic racism in policing. Despite calls from numerous Indigenous leaders, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs refused to hold a public inquiry into systemic racism in the province’s justice system.

These are too common cases of police being the first responders for people who are believed to be in crisis or in need of a “wellness check.” This is problematic because police are not health care providers. Too often the outcome of these encounters with distraught individuals is police escalating the problem and, in these cases, killing the person needing support or care. Resources for health care, including mental health care, should be diverted away from police, and used in community health care supports. Police budgets continue to grow as necessary health care services require more funding. Policing plays a central part in the dispossession, displacement, subjugation, control, killing, and genocide of Indigenous people and communities. It has been central to the interlocking settler colonial capitalist projects. Policing continues to play a key part in maintaining those projects up to the present.

A Town in North Ontario: Two Deaths in Two Days in Timmins

Police in the small northern Ontario city of Timmins shot and killed 21-year-old Joey Knapaysweet on 3 February 2018. In this case, as in many cases across Canada, police controlled much of the information about the killing and few details were provided publicly. Joey Knapaysweet was from the James Bay community of Fort Albany—more than an hour’s flight from Timmins. According to the family, he had gone to Timmins to “seek help in dreams for betterment of his life.” On 15 February, the family released a statement from Fort Albany saying they need answers about why police chose to kill their loved one. In a statement, Micheline Knapaysweet, Joey’s mother, expressed her pain: “I cannot sleep at nights, I need answers. This is my son, my child.” She asks further, “What did he do that was so bad that he had to be shot and killed? I am so heartbroken, with so many questions unanswered” (Canadian Press 2018). The Special Investigations Unit, the agency that investigates cases of police harm to civilians in Ontario, has only said: “There was an interaction between the man and officers, and one of the officers discharged a firearm. The man was struck. He was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead.”

The police killing of Joey Knapaysweet also occurred the same weekend as another Cree woman from Fort Albany—Agnes Sutherland, 62, died in custody of Timmins Police. Agnes Sutherland was arrested at a shelter after having been asked to leave the Timmins District Hospital where she had sought help. She was taken to a police station and put in a cell on Saturday, the same day Knapaysweet died. Later that same evening, she was taken to the hospital. She was pronounced dead late Sunday. In a statement issued by Indigenous leaders Grand Chief Fiddler, Grand Chief Jonathan Solomon of the Mushkegowuk Council, and Fort Albany First Nation Chief Andrew Solomon, serious questions are raised: “It is alleged that when police attended at the scene of the local shelter, Ms. Sutherland was treated roughly while being taken into police custody. She suffered severe complications during her detention” (Perkel 2018). Agnes was a mother of six with six great-grandchildren.

In their statement, Grand Chief Fiddler, Grand Chief Solomon, and Chief Andrew Solomon call for a timely and thorough investigation. They raise the very real issues of racism in policing and the violence targeted at Indigenous people by police. In their words, “We have seen systemic racism in the city of Thunder Bay and must now wonder if this is also happening in Timmins” (Perkel 2018). Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents nearly 50 Indigenous communities in northern Ontario, expressed great concern over the two deaths in two days. In his words: “It’s very troubling. The families have a lot of questions” (Perkel 2018). Details about both deaths are limited. In fact, police did not even release the names of their victims, but they were revealed through other sources, including federal Member of Parliament, Charlie Angus. Notably, Timmins Mayor Steve Black acknowledged that the deaths at the hands of police had increased racial tensions in the city, though he did not specify. He said: “I don’t believe there’s room for racism in any community. If changes need to be made or things need to be done to improve those relationships, we’re definitely willing to work with our partners on improving those relationships” (Perkel 2018). Mayor Black’s comments fall within a framework of assuming a criminal justice system should be maintained and can operate outside of a colonizing framework.

In addition to the policing response to health care needs, according to the Chiefs, both victims had left the remote community of Fort Albany, near Ontario’s James Bay coast, to seek medical care in Timmins. They note in their statement: “Our people must continually leave their families and communities to come to cities to seek services that are not available in their respective communities” (Perkel 2018). The deaths occurred as an emergency summit was being held in Timmins by the Mushkegowuk Council, whereby the regional James Bay government declared a state of emergency in November, concerned over the growing number of drugs and alcohol coming into its seven-member communities (CBC News 2018). Agnes Sutherland’s son, Glen Sutherland, told the Timmins Daily Press that his mother was a Survivor of the notorious St. Anne’s residential school. He said that she needed a wheelchair to get around and questioned the actions of hospital staff. She was using a wheelchair at the time of her arrest. Glen Sutherland said that her frequent trips to the emergency room were a cry for help (Perkel 2018). The mistreatment of Indigenous people seeking medical assistance at hospitals has been a common issue in various locations in Canada and is further evidence of the ongoing legacies of colonialism and racism in Canada.

A vigil in Timmins for Knapaysweet on Tuesday, 6 February, drew around a hundred people. Chief Andrew Solomon is calling on the Attorney General of Ontario and the Minister of Community Safety to investigate the Timmins Police (CBC News 2018). Micheline Knapaysweet has made a dedication to wear a red scarf, Joey Knapaysweet’s favourite colour, until the family receives answers to their questions. In the absence of effective accountability mechanisms, outside of the system itself, families and communities are left with few options.

Manitoba First Nations Police Kill Benjamin Richard on Long Plain First Nation on 2 April 2019

Manitoba First Nations Police shot and killed 23-year-old Benjamin Richard on Long Plain First Nation on the evening of 2 April 2019. The victim’s identity was confirmed publicly by his sister, Patricia Richard. She reports that she called police after speaking with her mother because she believed her brother to be “freaking out” and firing shots from the house where her mother lives. Patricia Richard had hoped police would protect her brother, not shoot him. She is upset at how police handled the situation, believing it should have ended differently. She has since said that her mother told her: “They went rushing in there. Everything happened too quick. She said they didn’t have to [shoot him]. He wasn’t threatening anyone, he just snapped on himself” (CBC News 2019b). The victim’s niece, Tammy Smith, said she was outside of the house in a pickup truck with Richard’s mother when three officers spotted Richard through a window and started shooting at him. She describes a chaotic, reckless, rush to lethal force. In her words: “I was backing up to see if I could see Ben, when all the shots came from the [police]. I’m pretty sure they all unloaded their clips. We just started screaming” (Rollason 2019). She echoed the family’s feelings of anger over how the situation was handled: “It should not have escalated to that point. They should have waited for more people. They should have tried to wait it out. They were all outside, shooting through the walls and windows. They never even entered the house” (Rollason 2019).

Witnesses suggest that the victim was only firing his weapon into an empty field and the ceiling of the house. They say he posed no threat to anyone but was simply upset. Richard’s cousin, Tammy Smith, relates: “His mother, last week, called the [police] to take him to the hospital so he could be assessed. But when they came and talked to him, they said he wasn’t a threat to anyone. Then a week later, they come back and shoot him” (Rollason 2019). Patricia Richard has said that in her view the officers were “trigger-happy.” She suggests: “They knew my brother needed help a few days before anything happened. He was unstable. Everyone saw the signs” (Rollason 2019). Again, in the shooting death of Benjamin Richard, a police lethal encounter was the response to what was an ongoing mental health need.

Smith remembers Benjamin Richard in these terms: “He was kind, caring and always thinking of others more than himself. The world lost a great man. My heart breaks” (Macdonnell 2019). According to the Independent Investigation Unit (IIU), the agency that examines cases of police harm to civilians in Manitoba, it was notified by Manitoba First Nations Police that officers had responded to a report of a man armed with a firearm in a residence at around 6 p.m. During an encounter, at least one office fired a weapon, striking the man. The victim, Benjamin Richard, was pronounced dead on the scene. Three officers involved in the case are now on administrative leave.

Regina Police Kill Geoff Morris on 4 May 2019

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) is calling for an independent investigation after the killing of 41-year-old Geoff Morris, by Regina Police Service officers on 4 May 2019. Morris was shot and killed by Regina Police during what police say was a hostage situation. There are reasons to be skeptical about this given the lack of public information available. Notably, Regina Police chief Evan Bray would not say whether an alleged hostage was still being held when the shooting occurred. Indeed, the policing account of events is being contradicted by Morris’s fiancé, Jasmine Brass, who says she was present when Morris was killed. In her words: “Honestly it wasn’t necessary for them to kill him, they could’ve just tased him” (Melnychuck 2019). She reports that Morris had been struggling with mental health issues and that she and her sister were with Morris trying to help him the morning he was killed by police. Brass also reports that he became more agitated when police arrived, a common occurrence, as the appearance of police typically heightens tensions and stress. She gives a chilling account, saying on Facebook that she heard a “bang” and felt a splatter of blood at the moment of killing. Incredibly, Brass reports that police shot Morris while she sat between his legs.

Geoff Morris was the biological father to four children. He also took in six other children and raised them. One daughter, Tanisha Whiteman, remembers him as a good, loving man who struggled with anxiety issues. She asks why police acted so quickly to kill. In her words: “That’s somebody’s father. That’s somebody’s son. That’s somebody’s brother, somebody’s nephew. He was loved by so many people. Why? Just like that, he’s gone. There could have been other ways that could have been handled. They didn’t have to take someone’s life away” (Whitfield 2019a). Criticisms of the police also came from Morris’s 12-year-old son, Nakayoh Friday: “I want people to know that the people who were supposed to protect us aren’t protecting us. They are killing us. I don’t want other families to go through my pain” (Whitfield 2019b). These statements are reminiscent of the colonial type of violent, dangerous policing historically experienced by Indigenous peoples.

According to Regina Police chief Evan Bray, legislation requires that the Regina Police Service’s Major Crime unit investigates the shooting. Cops investigating cops. The officer involved in the shooting was a member of the patrol response and remains on active duty. In a news release, FSIN Vice Chief Dutch Lerat noted that:

We have seen officers investigating their fellow officers and we all know how those investigations turn out. We are calling on the Regina Police Service to allow for an outside and independent oversight body to be a part of this investigation. We have been calling for this for years and these senseless police-related deaths keep happening. (CTV Regina 2019)

Regina Police claim that the killing of Morris is the first killing by an officer in the city since 1998. Police also claim that there have been four officer-involved shootings in the last 10 years, with none of those resulting in the death of the victim. With few public records, however, it is difficult to verify this information.

Robin Fiddler of Waterhen Lake First Nation Killed by Calgary Police on 26 June 2019

Family members have identified 34-year-old Robin Fiddler of Waterhen Lake First Nation in northern Saskatchewan as the woman who was shot twice and killed by a Calgary police officer on 26 June 2019. Fiddler was a trades worker in construction. Fiddler’s family is demanding justice. They question the quick violence of the Calgary police. Mario Fiddler, the victim’s cousin, says: “We believe Robin didn’t deserve to die—we want to see justice. We believe the Calgary police officer could’ve taken different steps dealing with Robin [and that] a Taser could’ve been used instead of shooting our cousin. My cousin isn’t the type of person to be an aggressor” (Laing 2019). When it comes to policing Indigenous people, the most lethal forms of violence continue to be employed.

Another cousin, Angela Fiddler, reflected on Robin Fiddler’s determination and humour. In her words:

She always tried to get through whatever systemic barriers that she faced—she always tried to make a way. She was just a blessing to us. It was her smile, she was always so funny and she always wanted to make people laugh. When we were both younger, I just took her under my wing and that was that. She would come live with me when she had the opportunity. I’ve always had an open door for her. Robin was a beautiful soul, she deserved to live. (Laing 2019)

Calgary police Chief Mark Neufeld has said that the officer who killed Fiddler was wearing a police-issued, body-worn camera at the time of the killing. No video has been released publicly. Robin Fiddler’s killing is at least the third police-involved death in Calgary in 2019. The family reports that they are returning Robin Fiddler’s body to Saskatchewan so that the family can lay her to rest and start a traditional healing journey (Laing 2019).

Randy Cochrane of Fisher River Cree Nation Killed by Winnipeg Police on 14 July 2019

The family of a man who died during an arrest by Winnipeg police has identified him as Randy Cochrane, a 30-year-old father of three. Family members are calling for answers into what happened during the arrest and why there appear to be discrepancies in what police reported and what doctors in the hospital’s emergency room have described. Randy Cochrane’s cousin, Monica Murdock, asks pointedly:

My family’s devastated. We want to know what happened to him. Why did he die in cuffs? Why were they chasing him? Why are they saying he was bloody but the doctors we went and saw at the emergency room last night said that he had no injuries? (Grabish 2019).

Murdock reports that doctors at the Health Sciences Centre told her family on Sunday, after Cochrane died, that the young man had suffered a heart attack and had a high fever. She also reports that they told her there were no other injuries on his body. She says that doctors informed her that it was too late by the time Cochrane arrived at the hospital at 4:30pm because he had been without a pulse for some time (Grabish 2019).

Murdock describes her cousin as “a fierce protector of his family” and she says, “he was more like a brother to her” (2019). She relates fondly: “He always made sure we were protected. We were safe. The last time I saw him he came to my house and he gave me some money for my baby ’cause my daughter’s in the hospital” (Grabish 2019). Marjorie Cochrane raised Randy after adopting him. She remembers: “He was really always close to his daughters. It’s hard. Taking it hard” (Grabish 2019). She too has important questions for police: “What happened when they handcuffed him?” (Grabish 2019).

A witness, Will Couture, says Cochrane, rather than being a threat, appeared to be shouting for help while running from something or someone. Couture reports that the man kept repeating “Help me, help me” (Grabish 2019). He then saw police chase Cochrane across the street. The man looked “freaked out,” Couture claims, “Just scared. Just like terrified of something you know what I mean? It was like the devil was chasing him” (Grabish 2019). It turned out to be the police.

Saulteaux Man Lucien Silverquill Killed by RCMP at Fishing Lake First Nation

Saskatchewan RCMP shot and killed Lucien Silverquill, a 37-year-old Saulteaux man at a home on Fishing Lake First Nation on the afternoon of 27 August 2019. The victim was a father with young children. The only report made public so far has been by the RCMP and has not been independently confirmed. The RCMP claim that officers from the Wadena detachment were dispatched around 1:30 p.m. after receiving a call about a man, allegedly armed with a knife, who was causing a disturbance outside of a home. Shortly after encountering the man, at least one officer discharged their firearm, striking him. The man was declared dead at the scene.

Moses Silverquill, the victim’s brother, suggested that the RCMP were more concerned with an arrest than with ensuring his brother received necessary medical attention. The scene he describes, and the RCMP’s handling of it, raises serious questions about police misconduct. He reports that Lucien Silverquill was shot twice, once in the chest and once in the leg. He says his brother was alive for some time, but in great pain before he died. According to Moses Silverquill, RCMP officers attempted to handcuff and subdue his brother after they had shot him. In his view, more than half an hour passed before Lucien Silverquill was put into the ambulance that had arrived on the scene (Pasiuk 2019). In his words: “It was a very horrific scene when we got there. . . . They didn’t give him CPR or anything like that. They just pinned him to the ground. That’s what we saw” (Pasiuk 2019). Moses Silverquill also points out the lack of information and responses to questions by RCMP. He says that RCMP refused to let family members near his injured brother. According to Moses Silverquill, “It was very hard to get answers from [RCMP] as to what was going on with my brother” (Pasiuk 2019). The brother wonders why alternative approaches were not taken, why police acted so quickly to shoot and why the police were so single minded in prioritizing arrest over medical care. Moses Silverquill reflects on the brother taken from his family by police violence: “My brother was a good person. . . . He had kids. He left little kids. I know he was a caring guy when he was with his family” (Pasiuk 2019).

There is no police oversight body in Saskatchewan. RCMP have asked the Moose Jaw Police Service to conduct a police investigation into the killing. They have also asked the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice to appoint an independent observer to assess the quality of the external investigation. The latter request is in accordance with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act. This means that there will be no independent investigation into this killing, not even nominally.

The Killing of Greg Ritchie of Saugeen First Nation by Ottawa Police

Greg Ritchie, a 30-year-old Ojibwe man from Saugeen First Nation near Owen Sound, Ontario, has been identified as the man shot and killed by Ottawa police on 31 January 2019. Family members have spoken publicly to say he was experiencing mental health crises and was heading to a pharmacy to pick up medication when he was shot and killed by police. The responding officers have been identified as Ottawa constables Thanh Tran and Daniel Vincelette. Witnesses reported hearing more than two shots. One witness, Shireen Moodley, reports hearing multiple rapid-fire gunshots. Tran and another officer were charged in September 2011 with assault causing bodily harm following the arrest of an intoxicated 50-year-old homeless man.

Family members say Ritchie, who had been taken from his mother and placed in foster care, had struggled with mental health issues from a young age. He had moved to Ottawa to live with his brother and his partner. Ritchie’s sister-in-law reports that he was in good spirits the morning he was killed. Having received his Ontario Disability Support Program payment, he was going out for a coffee. He then set out to get his medication, as he was suffering a headache and recovering from a concussion. He had been a customer at the pharmacy at Elmvale Acres Mall since relocating to Ottawa earlier in 2019.

Police allegedly received a call about a “suspicious incident.” Greg Ritchie’s sister-in-law, Chantal Ritchie, provides a painfully poignant description, given that Ritchie’s family says he had an ongoing fear that people viewed him suspiciously because of the way he looked and because of his Indigenous identity:

And the thing is, that’s not the kind of guy he is. He gets scared . . . and that’s the saddest part. We know that he was in complete and utter terror in a moment like that. He’s scared of just going into a grocery store . . . of just being in a crowd, because he’s afraid that people want to do something to him or don’t like him because of the way he looks. . . . And honestly, we’ve seen it. People just take one look and that’s it. He’s First Nations, he’s been homeless before, and he is afraid. People just take all of that in one look and then make assumptions and then act on it. And it just really hurts that we weren’t there to be able to calm him down because there’s no way that any of this would have happened if we were there. There’s no way. (CBC News 2019a)

Chantal Ritchie says Greg felt better around family and was very involved in learning about his culture. She worries that cultural materials he carried with him might have been misinterpreted as weapons by the police who killed him.

The Inquest into RCMP Killing of Felix Taqqaugaq in Igloolik, Nunavut

Police should not be the ones to address people dealing with mental health issues; and in Indigenous communities, as seen in the above cases, a lethal response continues to be a common one. This is also the case in the community of Igloolik, Nunavut, where four years ago, RCMP shot and killed Felix Taqqaugaq at the age of 29 in his own home only moments after encountering the man. The 20 March 2012 killing occurred after Taqqaugaq called into a local radio station and engaged in a wordy rant, causing a listener to call the RCMP. The RCMP later encountered the victim at his home and killed him. Family members have noted that Felix Taqqaugaq experienced mental health issues. It remains unclear why anyone would call police upon hearing someone ranting on a radio program or why the police would respond.

It is rare in the Canadian context that police officers who kill civilians are ever named publicly. This generally only happens in the few cases that result in charges laid against police officers, or in case of a public inquiry or inquest. With the coroner’s inquest onto the police killing of Felix Taqqaugaq on 20 March 2012, as is mandatory in cases of police harm to civilians in Nunavut, the RCMP officers who killed him have been identified publicly as Constable Jason Trites and Sergeant Peter Marshall. According to the report, Constable Trites knew that Taqqaugaq was dealing with mental health issues, which the officer understood to be schizophrenia. Yet, he still moved quickly to arrest the man for supposedly uttering threats and fired a Taser at him only moments into the encounter (and before the man had done anything more than speak to officers). It was surmised that the Taser fire may have upset Taqqaugaq, who was then chased back into his house by Sergeant Marshall. In response to this police chase, Taqqaugaq may have returned brandishing a knife.

By Trites’s own admission, he tripped while backing away from Taqqaugaq and fired his handgun, leaving a self-inflicted wound on his hand. While on his back, Trites shot Taqqaugaq three times. The man was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Trites’s injury was initially reported publicly, but it was not clarified that he had shot himself. The early reports of officer injuries, devoid of the important context of self-injury, clearly gives the impression that police were physically threatened or harmed and thus justified in using lethal force. This was seen in a similar case in the RCMP killing of Hudson Brooks in Surrey, British Columbia, where a self-inflicted wound by police was only revealed later (Chan 2017).

According to Mary Ijjangiaq, Taqqaugaq’s partner of 13 years, the police instigated the situation leading to the killing. In her words to the inquest: “They ganged up on him. He was deliberately provoked. I think [the officer] deliberately made sure he died” (Murray 2016a). She says the victim held a knife at his chest rather than over his head in a threatening manner, as police claim he did. Police audio from the incident raise further questions and point to a very quick escalation to lethal force by police. Only 60 seconds passed from the moment officers radioed the Iqaluit command centre to report that they had located the suspect until one officer called out, “Shots fired; suspect down” (Murray 2016a).

In many of these cases, officers are often treated as the victim. Both officer Trites and Sergeant Marshall were flown out of the northern community the very next day after the killing of Felix Taqqaugaq. Trites testified at the inquest by video from Halifax. In his testimony to the inquiry, he states: “I just hope the family knows that they’re not the only ones that were hurt by this. The things that I deal with, do affect my personal life. I’m definitely not the same person as I used to be before this incident” (Murray 2016b).

No Justice: Inquest into Police Killing of Craig Mcdougall Sees No Racism despite Mistreatment of Family, Eight-Year Delay

As seen above, inquiries into police violence typically offer findings that diminish the violence and deny racism in police actions. Such was the case with the 12 May 2017, inquiry into the killing of Craig McDougall, a young Indigenous man, by Winnipeg police. There was an eight-year delay between the killing and the inquest report. Twenty-six-year-old Craig Vincent McDougall was shot and killed by police outside his father’s home on Simcoe Street in Winnipeg on 2 August 2008. Police claimed to be responding to a 911 call when they arrived at the home in the early hours. Officers stated that McDougall was found outside the house holding a cell phone and a knife. One officer shot him with a Taser, then he was shot with a firearm, which killed him. A private investigator who examined the case has cast doubt on the assertion that Craig McDougall held a knife when he was shot.

At the scene, the victim’s family members were immediately arrested and put in handcuffs on the front lawn, an act that is termed the “dramatization of evil” or what Harold Garfinkel (1959) termed a degradation ceremony—a practice designed to denigrate and humiliate people. Jonathan Rudin, a legal practitioner and acclaimed scholar on Indigenous people, policing, and the criminal justice system, testified as an expert witness that the way McDougall’s family was treated after the young man was shot exemplified systemic racism, as they were treated by police as criminals. Despite this, the inquest concluded that there was no evidence of racism in the police actions.

Instead, the Inquiry offered a typified finding that police were justified in their actions. In the inquest report, Associate Chief Judge Anne Krahn wrote there was “no evidence of racism direct or systemic in the moments leading to the shooting of Craig McDougall.” The judge found the arrest of McDougall’s father and uncle to be a simple misstep. In her words, “there were missteps in the immediate aftermath of the shooting when Craig McDougall’s uncle and father were left handcuffed and detained without lawful authority.” From the historical violence to contemporary practices of lethal violence, the settler colonial character of the Canadian state continues in the current context of Indigenous policing.

Conclusion

This chapter outlines several cases of police lethal force to illustrate specific ongoing colonial violence and racism found in the Canadian criminal justice system. From the denial of health support and the tropes of “drunkenness” to the rapid use of lethal violence and the varying, limited and failed inquiries, it is clear that racialized violence against Indigenous people exists at every level of the system in almost every situation. In focusing on policing, this chapter expands on the scholarship, traditionally more focused on Indigenous sentencing and incarceration, to ensure that the colonial roots of policing are made evident.

In providing an overview of the landscape of police use of lethal force against Indigenous people through several cases, this chapter highlights the various levels of interaction and encounter between Indigenous people and law enforcement across varied police agencies. It also shows the layers of racism and colonial prisms through which Indigenous people are viewed and rendered as subjects to be killed with limited or no accountability. This fills a void in the research on policing interactions with Indigenous in the Canadian context (Wortley et al. 2021). We must not lose sight that police in the Canadian state emerged as colonial forces of occupation and control. Police use of lethal force against Indigenous people must be understood in this context.

Any solutions to colonial violence must be embedded in an anti-colonial framework to analyze and address lethal uses of violence more fully. This includes accounting for generations of theft, murder, brutality, and genocide carried out by the various agencies (police, courts, corrections, law, border security, etc.) that are ostensibly designed to protect and serve. In the Canadian context, this means confronting the colonial nature of policing and addressing the ongoing practices of colonial conquest, control, and violence embodied in and expressed through institutions of national identity and symbolism like Canadian police forces.

Note

1. 1 The briefing note was only made public in November of 2019 after an access to information request was filed by the Globe and Mail newspaper.

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