Police can’t provide healing Indigenous Peoples need

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2021 (1664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The disconnect can’t be more stark.

During the vigil for Eishia Hudson Thursday — the 16-year-old Indigenous girl shot by a Winnipeg police officer one year ago — attendees released gold balloons that spelled “murdered” and “missing.”

Marked with red handprints across their faces — the symbol of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls — activists carried signs announcing: “Winnipeg police killed my sister,” “Not another Indigenous life… stop killing” and “Justice for Eishia.”

The grassroots organization Winnipeg Police Cause Harm, which has more than 10,000 followers on social media, was present. It encouraged attendees to support the Hudson family’s online fundraising campaign as they challenge the Independent Investigative Unit’s conclusion that no member of the Winnipeg Police Service should be held legally responsible for Hudson’s death.

“In the murder of my daughter,” the family writes on its GoFundMe page, “the officer was let off, with no charges or penalties.”

The vigil was about the beauty of Eishia and her life. Attendees were encouraged to attach flowers to a mural in her favourite colour: lavender. The opening song honoured her spirit with young dancers in jingle dresses. Loving words were shared by her family and her father William Hudson, standing with local leaders such as NDP MP Leah Gazan.

The rain resembled the tears of the 200 people in attendance, with grey clouds drifting over the tragedy of another senseless Indigenous death.

The true shadow though, was created by the Winnipeg Police Service, which may have not had much presence there – but was definitively there.

One year ago this week, Winnipeg police shot three Indigenous people over 10 days. Eishia was the first. The following day, 36-year-old Jason Collins was shot. Nine days later, 22-year-old Stewart Kevin Andrews was shot, too.

At the time, police chief Danny Smyth called the shootings “unrelated” and an “anomaly.”

As I wrote a year ago in this piece: “The problem is, all three officer-involved shootings aren’t an anomaly, and they are related.”

No one has been held accountable and, worse yet, IIU investigations have supported the “innocence” of all involved – even though it’s clear bias was present at least in Eishia’s shooting.

The IIU report into the shooting, for instance, stated that her friends were saying: “We’re done bro, we’re done,” “We’re not getting out of this” and “They got us now” before the officer opened fire.

In fact, Hudson’s final words were: “Ok, Stop.”

Winnipeg police don’t consider her death evidence of murder, missing, or anything illegal. All officers in the three shootings have been exonerated and are likely working now (but we don’t know because their names are protected).

So, all that remains is a widening gap between Indigenous lives and the police – with the space filled with politics, racism, and a whole lot of death.

It’s clear that “anti-racism training,” the “Indigenous partnerships” division of the WPS, and the Indigenous relations division of the City of Winnipeg are not saving Indigenous lives.

The police service is a signatory to the Winnipeg Indigenous Accord, which is supposed to “strengthen relationships with First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.”

That’s not working either.

Buying an expensive police helicopter and armoured rescue vehicle isn’t helping, but it’s probably part of the all-time high of Indigenous people in Manitoba jails today.

Can we face reality?

Police can’t fix Canada’s racist legacies, which continue to hammer Indigenous peoples into dire poverty, dangerous situations, and life-and-death struggles.

Police are the least equipped to deal with the effects of residential schools, the brutal Indian Act, and racist beliefs held by Canadians. The mere fact that police hold guns should convince everyone trauma is not repaired by inserting more trauma.

We need far less police and far more community organizations and entities invested in relationship-building, peace, and addressing the biggest epidemic of this country’s 150-plus years of trauma: health.

Health comes when people find a balance between their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual selves. This is why rebuilding Indigenous cultures, ceremonies, and languages are key — because they bring all four together.

We need these entities to help Winnipeggers understand how Canada’s racism has built beautiful, wealthy lives for some and incredible trauma for others. This knowledge must come with the message that this may not be the fault of Winnipeggers, but it is an inheritance – so everyone must therefore do something about it.

Call this movement “defunding the police” if you want. I don’t care.

I just know that more police, violence, and a lack of action is producing Indigenous deaths.

Indigenous peoples are saying it. They are even releasing messages into the sky.

The question is whether we can connect to it.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca