Independent, Indigenous policing could be considered in N.B., minister says
CBC
New Brunswick’s Indigenous Affairs minister says the province would be open to the idea of community-led policing in First Nation communities.
But not quite yet, said Keith Chiasson, who was put forth for an interview after CBC News requested one with the Department of Public Safety.
Chiasson said an independent policing model is “on the table,” but he clarified it’s not a “yes or no” answer right now as the province is working with First Nations to determine the best way forward.
It’s been called for by community leaders for years after four police shooting deaths of Indigenous people since 2020 in New Brunswick, including the death of Bronson Paul last week in Neqotkuk First Nation.
Chiasson said it wasn’t a “yes or no” because of challenges still to be worked out around how resolutions from band councils would be enforced in the judicial system if they were to escalate there.
One example has been banishment resolutions, which banish "undesirable" people from the community. New Brunswick police agencies have refused to enforce them because they’re outside the province’s legal code.
“So we're not quite there yet,” Chiasson said of Indigenous policing.
“There is a lot of work to be done, but those discussions have started.”
He said there are ongoing discussions with chiefs, but following the shooting in Neqotkuk, it was “unfortunate” that incidents like that “encourage everyone to kind of fast-track those decisions.”
Besides Sitansisk, which has a contract with the Fredericton Police Force, First Nations in the province often have the RCMP as their policing service.
Chiasson said the Mi’kmaw communities already have agreements with the province and federal government to have a peacekeeper program in their communities, and it’s being looked at for Wolastoqey communities as well.
Peacekeepers work alongside RCMP officers when they go into Mi’kmaw communities as the “eyes and ears” of the community, Chiasson said.
This could be “not as heavy of a lift” to implement as putting a full police force in place, he said.
“I think it's important just to kind of repeat the fact that we're open to it,” Chiasson said.
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