No date set yet by Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on claims of discriminatory funding by FN police chiefs

A lawyer for the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario (IPCO) said he’s still meeting with Public Safety Canada to iron out procedural requirements as he seeks a hearing before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT).

Julian Falconer has filed a complaint about the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program (FNIPP) claiming it is discriminatory due to chronic underfunding.

He adds that the clauses that prohibit owning their own facilities and forming specialized investigative units, such as canine and homicide, are also discriminatory.

The parties last met December 1, 2025 with a CHRT adjudicator to discuss details, pleadings, expert qualifications and reports.

Falconer says he's frustrated with the pace, and the fact that one adjudicator was recently replaced.

“I say that it really makes the point of how challenging it is for the First Nations to really get accountability,” he said. “It is a huge endeavor that calls on enormous resources to hold Canada accountable”

While First Nations police have long maintained they are chronically underfunded, the issue came to a boil in 2023, when funding for three First Nations police services — Anishinabek Police, Treaty Three and UCCM Police — expired. They refused to accept the terms of the new contract offered under the federal funding formula.

Those officers serve 30,000 people in 45 First Nations scattered across northern and southern Ontario.

The police services, represented by IPCO, went to federal court to obtain emergency funding while they pursued a complaint of discrimination with the CHRT.

They were successful, and Justice Denis Gascon ruled on June 30, 2023 that Canada had not acted honourably or in the spirit of reconciliation in its dealings with the three police services.

He ordered Public Safety Canada to flow funding and lift the prohibitive clauses on the three First Nations.

Falconer said the three services now have funding agreements that include marginal increases until March 31, 2027, but he said Public Safety still hasn’t provided adequate funding.

He said, for instance, reviews show Anishinabek Police need 100 more officers, but still don't have the money to hire them or facilities for them to work in.

“So we are stuck in a perpetual suspended animation,” he said. “As Canada acknowledges and Ontario acknowledges, there's a deficit in officers, there's a deficit in resources, there's a deficit in infrastructure, but they don't offer the actual concrete funding to fix it.”