Q&A: Public safety minister talks Amber Alerts, First Nation policing
Mendicino is swinging through Saskatoon this week to defend Ottawa's handgun bill and talk about expanding First Nations police forces.
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Federal Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is sticking to his government’s guns.
Mendicino is swinging through Saskatoon this week to talk about legislation that will expand First Nations police forces to more reserves, including meetings with Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron and Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Mark Arcand.
In an interview, Mendicino spoke about First Nations policing, Amber Alerts and how some Saskatchewan public officials aren’t supporting his government’s plans for Bill C-21, which aims to “freeze” the legal purchase or transfer of handguns.
Q: Indigenous leaders have criticized the lack of Amber Alerts after recent missing Indigenous children cases involving Vincent Jansen and Frank Young. You were at the press conference for Jansen on Monday morning where attendees expressed those concerns. Is it time for a national Indigenous alert system?
A: I think we need to be prepared to have the conversation while at the same time supporting First Nations and Indigenous communities, as we do all communities, when they go through the traumatic early moments of trying to locate a missing person and particularly a missing young person.
I’ve had some conversations with the community here in Saskatchewan about that. I was in touch with them when Frank Young was found and relayed those concerns to RCMP.
At a minimum, there should be dialogue about whether or not the criteria (for Amber Alerts) are providing as much support as is needed in those very early and fragile moments when every minute can make a difference.
Q: Parallel to an Indigenous-led alert system, you’re in Saskatoon to talk about Indigenous-led policing with FSIN and STC. Are there any First Nations in Saskatchewan that are prime candidates for creating their own police forces?
A: I was very impressed with a number of the partnership agreements that STC had have already reached with the government of Saskatchewan. And I think we could look to build on some of those partnership agreements whether it’s with regards to preventing recidivism or reintegration.
FSIN talked about a number of nations there who are ready to go. It depends on exactly what community we’re talking about, but take Buffalo River Dene Nation. They’re expressing a real willingness to accelerate progress.
Q: Premier Scott Moe has called Bill C-21 “virtue signalling” and the Saskatchewan Firearms Office says the bill will “unfairly target” law-abiding gun owners. Why do you think this bill doesn’t seem to be supported by key public officials in Saskatchewan?
A: Bill C-21 targets organized crime and targets gun violence. It does that by putting in place a national freeze on the purchase or transfer of handguns (because) we’ve seen those guns grow by an average of 45,000 to 55,000 new registrations each year. It raises the maximum sentence for illegal gun traffickers from 10 to 14 years and it allows police to interdict the illegal flow of guns across our borders.
The third thing that Bill C-21 does is it introduces red flag laws. That allows a judge to take away a gun or to suspend the licence of any one who poses a threat either to themselves or to anyone else, while at the same time protecting the identity of those victims and survivors who may apply to the court for relief.
When you take a look at these measures, they’re very proportionate to the gravity of the situation which is that gun crime has been on the rise. When you have law enforcement leaders across the country, like the Canadian Association of the Chiefs of Police saying that Bill C-21 is a step in the right direction, that’s a pretty good indication that this is not about “virtue signalling.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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