The Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) is speaking out about the issue of police brutality.
In a media release sent out Tuesday, CAP spoke about a number of Indigenous people, including William Favel of Saskatoon, who have been victims of police brutality in Canada. CAP also called for police services to make steps to improve policing.
The organization’s National Vice Chief Kim Beaudin told MBC Radio News that currently he does not see true accountability when it comes to the process of dealing with officers who are accused of wrong doing along with those who have been found to have done wrong.
“Accountability would be swift action, in other words, that officer would be suspended for example, until an investigation is launched and find out what really happened and then of coarse if they were wrong they should be terminated,” he said.
The national vice chief stressed the need for stronger oversight of police. Beaudin said in his experience police commissions have very limited power, especially when it comes to dealing with officers who are accused of misconduct.
“The public thinks that the police commission can actually do something, but there’s really nothing they can do, all the power lies with the Chief of Police,” he said.
Beaudin said CAP was motivated to speak out as many Canadian police chiefs themselves have recently been speaking out in condemnation of the beating death of a black man by police officers in Memphis Tennessee in the United States. Beaudin said there are examples of police officers in Canada being responsible for peoples deaths and not being held accountable. One of the cases he cited was Chris Amyotte, who died in Vancouver after being shot with a bean bag by police.
Overall the CAP National Vice Chief said the recent public words of some of the country’s police chiefs don’t line up with their actions.
“They talk, but they don’t walk the walk,” said Beaudin.
(Top Photo: CAP National Vice Chief Kim Beaudin. Photo by Michael Joel-Hansen.)