Skeena MLA Ellis Ross explores gaps in policing as part of ongoing committee work on Reforms to the Police Act

A policing overview from the RCMP's Commanding Officer for BC
was the main feature of Legislature Committee on Monday
(photo BC RCMP)

The second meeting of the newly formed Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act met early on Monday morning, with the committee members taking advantage of the opportunity to seek out more information and ask questions of the top cop in the province.

The BC RCMP Commanding Officer Brenda Butterworth-Carr participated in the morning session, providing a statement first related to the foundation for policing in the province as well as an overview of the interaction between the RCMP and municipalities across British Columbia.

That tutorial was then followed by a Question and Answer session, with Skeena MLA Ellis Ross using his time to explore a range of themes and to inquire about gaps in policing, particularly in relation to urban and on reserve policing.

The Skeena MLA opened his commentary with a review of how he views the issue of systemic racism and how it has served as the narrative to the ongoing committee work.

Along those lines, I have not acknowledged systemic racism. I was on the committee, actually, to review the Police Act, as well, and that was one of my questions — about whether or not the…. To think about systemic racism is to think that the whole system is race-biased, somehow. 

And considering all the oversight, all the different committees and all the different groups — the Police Complaint Commissioner's office — and everyone that's involved in the system to date, to somehow say that the whole system is race-biased…. I don't get it, and I don't believe it, and that's basically why I'm here — to see if the whole system is, indeed, race-biased. 

But I've heard it mentioned a few times already. This is what I've always believed. With every single institution, no matter what you're looking at in terms of our society, there are a few bad apples that paint the picture for everybody else. 

And I'm talking about every single organization I've worked with for the last 15 years. 

So to say there are a few incidents, a dozen incidents, and then say the whole system somehow has to be fixed because of some kind of bias…. I don't think that's why I'm here. I'm here to figure out whether or not the system is actually suffering from systemic racism.  

Mr. Ross the turned towards the issue of how policing may differ for First Nations residents both on and off reserve

In saying that, I was a chief councillor for a few years in my band council — as well, I was a councillor for eight years — and I did sign that tripartite agreement. And it wasn't at the request of the government. It wasn't at the request of the RCMP. It was actually at the request of my band council. And in fact, our biggest complaint with that agreement was that there wasn't enough policing on reserve.

So in that vein, I'm thinking that one of the gaps we have here that might be leading to this perception of racism in relation to First Nations, is we actually have two different issues here. 

We have on-community policing, which the communities want and the band councils want, and there's a collaborative effort there in terms of enforcement. 

But there's also the off-reserve component that nobody seems to be in charge of. Now, there are a few political bodies out there that actually voice up their opinions and make complaints, but they actually don't represent off-reserve First Nations. 

And I think this is not just a policing issue. It's an off-reserve, on-reserve issue. 

So without that authority — without that representative, that defined authority — and that defined representative of that off-reserve of First Nations people, I think that's a huge gap there. 

 So is there any appetite to actually try to get a bunch of First Nations leaders in a room — the ones that have defined authority, the ones that have defined representation — to kind of address that off-reserve component, which seems to be at the kind of no man's land right now?

In reply the Deputy Commissioner noted how the current agreements and frameworks are somewhat dated and in need of a review to reflect more current concerns.

It is recognized that the current community tripartite agreement and the framework which it operates under is antiquated. I do know that there have been conversations, including by personnel within my branch that have been asked to participate in an evolution of that particular First Nations policing policy. 

It's certainly something that the federal Public Safety Minister is interested in and I know that Minister Farnworth has been a part of those conversations. 

Having said that, again, there is example of the dichotomy of services that are getting provided and inequity that is a part of that service provision, specifically that within the province of British Columbia, albeit under the community tripartite agreement, the intent is to have enhanced policing provided within First Nation communities. That is not the case. 

What happened in many of the communities is that they took existing provincial police service positions and converted them to the First Nation policing positions. 

So they've increased the positions so that they could be enhanced — frankly, just converted existing, as I was mentioning. 

But the work doesn't go away. So it makes it very challenging for the enhanced relationship to be created in those communities when the demands for service still are provided or applied to all of the front-line personnel that are in those geographical locations. 

I think it's a conversation that does need to be had in terms of what the future would look like. 

And again, with respect to the committee with the components that we referenced as part of the terms of reference does talk about the structure and service delivery.

Mr. Ross followed up on those themes with a snapshot of the current policing approach in the Northwest, reinforcing the need for more First Nation leadership on the topic.

In terms of our communities, up in our region, we're actually okay with the policing agreements and the service provided. The only issue is that the timing wasn't right, and we wanted more of it. 

But I think the grey area is off reserve. 

I mean, off-reserve natives are still part of the band list, but most band councils really don't take an interest in what's happening to those off-reserve members.  

I mean, this is an issue that I've see all across the board and not just with policing. It's got to do with funding, services, programs. The band council just gets limited to what's on their own reserve, unless they have the resources to actually work outside of that. 

The real issue, for me, is off reserve, where most of these incidents seem to be happening. Is there really any interest in looking at defined authority, not a political authority, to look at the incidents coming off reserve, especially in our urban areas. 

Because right now what I've been trying to do in Terrace is to get First Nations leaders to come in and provide assistance with the enforcement there, but there's no interest: "I'm going to stick to my community. I've got my police agreement. That's up to me, even though that's my band member on the streets of Terrace or Prince George or Vancouver." 

I mean I don't think I've ever heard of one racist incident on my reserve, and we've had a tripartite police agreement for the last ten years. 

So I think this is a big part of the issue that we're trying to resolve here in relation to First Nations incidents. I'm not talking about all the other racism across the board.

You can explore the full Committee Question and Answer session here, with an audio archive of the day's work available here, the contribution from Mr. Ross begins at the 9 AM portion of the discussion.

The committee also received a report from the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General on Monday, which provided further background into the current Police Act that is under review.

Some further notes on the creation of the Special committee can be found from our blog item of July 9th.

You can track the work of Mr. Ross and the Committee members from the archive page hosted by the Legislature of British Columbia.

For more notes related to the work of the Skeena MLA at the Legislature see our archive page here.