'Positive response': Public safety minister meets with Siksika representatives while touring Western Canada

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Canada’s Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was in Calgary on Wednesday as part of a Western Canada tour to highlight federal efforts to support First Nation policing and combat rising gun violence in the country.

Mendicino travelled to Siksika First Nation east of the city Wednesday morning before touring the Awo Taan shelter alongside local MP George Chahal. While in Siksika, he met with Chief Ouray Crowfoot and other members of council to discuss the nation’s proposal to create its own police force.

Mendicino said the meeting was positive, constructive and a chance to iterate that he believed all parties involved are in agreement when it comes to reforming policing in the community.

“I want to be clear that I think all parties are very much in alignment that this work of proceeding with Indigenous policing reform is essential,” said Mendicino. “What I see are the next concrete steps is for all parties to sit down together to iron out what is the path forward.”

The southern Alberta First Nation had its own police force from 1992 to 2002 before funding was pulled. The provincial government and Siksika Nation have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to improve public safety and develop a funding framework for a new police service. 

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro said earlier this month that a big roadblock to creating a new police force is waiting for the federal government to finish a review of its First Nations and Inuit Policing Program, and called for the freeze on the program to be removed. 

Mendicino said Wednesday that creating a police force won’t happen overnight, but that it is clear the process needs to be accelerated.

“That was my promise to (Siksika), was to accelerate the pace of progress when it comes to Indigenous policing reform for Siksika, and that is a commitment that I have been making throughout my western tour,” said Mendicino.

Crowfoot said while no concrete actions came out of the meeting, they were not expecting any sort of agreement to be immediately signed. He said meeting with Mendicino was a good first step in the process.

“Overall feeling from the meeting is a good feeling. I think there’s some good next steps,” said Crowfoot. “We gave them a copy of our police business case and again a good positive response, but again nothing concrete.”

Following his meeting in Siksika, Mendicino visited Awo Taan, a shelter for women fleeing domestic violence, to discuss what the federal government is doing to combat gun violence.

The minister said that after several years of rising gun violence in Canada, the status guo is not acceptable. In response, the government introduced Bill C-21, which would see a national handgun freeze and would address the role of guns in domestic violence as well as assist law enforcement with gun smuggling across the national border.

It would also introduce red flag laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.

— With files from The Canadian Press

dshort@postmedia.com