A coalition of human rights advocates has called on the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau-led federal government to establish an independent external review of Canada’s national police force to address its treatment of women.
This is after a recent report by the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) said it uncovered that there is “growing evidence of systemic discrimination and violence” against women by the national police force. According to the 56-page document, Indigenous women are disproportionately impacted.
Speaking during a virtual news conference, Pamela Palmater, a Mi’kmaw lawyer and chair in Indigenous governance at Toronto Metropolitan University, said “Indigenous women and girls have long been targets of sexualized violence and exploitation at the hands of state actors, including the police”.
It was clarified that Palmater researched and co-wrote the report with Sivangi Misra, Ashley Major, and Shelagh Day of FAFIA. The report was funded in part by the federal government’s Department for Women and Gender Equality.
It is important to also note that the organization, which is made up of women’s human rights advocacy organizations across Canada, compiled and analyzed news reports, public inquiries, and documents published in the last decade. In the report, they showed evidence of a pattern of discrimination, harassment, and assault against women by officers of the RCMP.
In view of the development, FAFIA has projected a need to review and address how the RCMP treats women both as an employer and service provider.
An RCMP spokesperson, in an email statement to newsmen, said the force is aware of the report, adding that “The RCMP is subject to review by a number of external review bodies”.
“As we’ve demonstrated in the past on a variety of subjects, we welcome any examination that could improve our operations. While acknowledging there remains much to do, the RCMP has been active in implementing change.”
It was noted that the report was submitted to federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and Women and Gender Equality and Youth Minister Marci Ien.
Reacting to the development, the minister of Public Safety, in an emailed statement, said “There is absolutely no place for misogyny, harassment or violence within the RCMP or in Canadian society.”
“For too long, there has been a culture within the RCMP that is permissive of systemic inequities and has led to misogyny, discrimination, harassment and workplace violence.”
According to the statement, the ministry is implementing reforms by creating the Independent Centre for Harassment Resolution, strengthening oversight of the RCMP’s Management Advisory Board and ensuring that the RCMP’s workforce is more reflective of the diversity of the country.
Meanwhile, Palmater stated that a culture of misogyny and racism in the RCMP was brought to limelight by former Supreme Court Justice Michel Bastarache’s 2020 findings in his report on the implementation of the Merlo-Davidson Settlement, on the sexual harassment of RCMP employees.
Palmatersaid “If female RCMP officers are not safe from sexual assaults by male officers, it should be no surprise that marginalized Indigenous women and girls are not safe either”.
In addition, the study cited other reports, including the final report of the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, as evidence of the RCMP’s failure to prevent violence against Indigenous women and girls, and failure to thoroughly investigate their disappearances and deaths.
The report added that Indigenous land defenders, many of whom are women, are “vilified, surveilled, criminalized, and subjected to violence by the RCMP” by being arrested and forcibly removed from their territories.
Shelagh Day, the chair of FAFIA’s human rights committee, said “These acts and failures violate women’s right to equality and non-discrimination”.
Speakingat the news conference, Sen. Kim Patesaid “Canada cannot have a credible national action plan on violence against women or a credible national action plan on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls until the culture of misogyny and racism in the RCMP is rooted out.”
“The systemic issues that this report raises, as well as the many instances, sadly of and horrifically of discrimination, are echoed in a number of institutions right now in this country, military, prisons, as well as within the police”
“While there has been a lot of effort to try and address these issues, we see the very real need for the kinds of calls for accountability and oversight that FAFIA has brought forward.”
