Canada indigenous groups demand probe after police kill woman
07 June, 2020
Canadian aboriginal groups on Saturday called for an independent probe in to the death of an indigenous woman who was simply shot by a officer called in for a wellness check.
The Congress of Aboriginal People (CPA), one of five national groups representing indigenous Canadians, called for "a public investigation in to the death of Chantel Moore and the ongoing systemic bias and racism that policing services and the justice system displays towards Indigenous peoples."
Moore, 26, was shot dead Thursday by a police officer in Edmundston, in the eastern province of New Brunswick. A member of family had called police to check on Moore's health.
Edmundston police said the girl had threatened the officer with a knife. According to the family, the officer fired five times to subdue her.
Moore's "tragic killing... throughout a wellness check has vividly displayed all Canadians that Indigenous peoples in Canada continue to face an extremely different set of circumstances when getting together with the policing and justice systems in Canada", said CPA National Chief Robert Bertrand.
While officials have opened a probe into Moore's death, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Perry Bellegarde, said the shooting should be investigated by an impartial alternative party to determine why lethal force was used and whether race was one factor in the officer's response.
"How does a call for help become a demand the coroner? This will never happen," Bellegarde said.
"We need to determine whether race played any role in the authorities response and whether a less extreme utilization of force must have been used. This young First Nation's mothers and daughters didn't have to die."
Separately, in the western state of Alberta, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam accused Canadian Royal Mounted Police of beating him in March throughout a routine check of his automobile registration.
The RCMP said he was resisting arrest.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Friday about discrimination in Canada before taking part in a demonstration in Ottawa against racism and police violence following death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by police in america.
"In the last weeks, we've seen a sizable number of Canadians suddenly awaken to the actual fact that the discrimination that is a lived reality for far too many of our fellow citizens is a thing that must end," he said.
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