Action better than inquiry to tackle aboriginal issues, says Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police

Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill speaks to media on June 2, 2014. Photo: Michelle Berg/Postmedia News/Files

A day after saying it took no position on calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, Canada’s police chiefs association is calling on government leaders to skip an inquiry and focus instead on developing an action plan to deal with poverty, lack of housing and marginalization of First Nations people.

Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill, the newly elected president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, told reporters Tuesday that police alone cannot address the root causes that lead aboriginal women to be vulnerable to violence.

“Yes, a national inquiry may shed some light on this. But as the Canadian (police) chiefs, we don’t want to delay action,” Weighill said. “Yes, we do have to get tough on crime, there’s no doubt about that. Some people have to be held accountable. But I’d also suggest to the Canadian public that we have to get tough on the issue of poor housing, we have to get tough on the issue of poverty, we have to get tough on the issue of racism, we have to get tough on the issue of disadvantage.

“Because if you can’t fix those issues, we can’t fix the crime issues because it’s an endless circle.”

Just a day earlier, the outgoing association president, Vancouver police Chief Const. Jim Chu, told reporters the association had no position on the matter since it had not been approached by groups calling for an inquiry.

The recent death of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, an aboriginal girl whose body was dumped in the Red River in Winnipeg, has renewed calls from native leaders and several provincial premiers, including Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, Manitoba’s Greg Selinger and Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall, for a public inquiry.

Ghislain Picard, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said momentum is building. “What we have today is that the federal government is standing alone,” he told The Canadian Press.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week said the death of Fontaine was a matter for police to investigate and should not be viewed as a “sociological phenomenon.”

Weighill said given the media attention the issue has garnered, the police chiefs association’s board met Tuesday morning and decided not to endorse an inquiry because an inquiry could take two or three years to complete — delaying action on underlying issues.

“I go out and talk to groups and as soon as I talk about disparity in our communities and what we need to work on, people start looking at the floor, they start looking around the room. They don’t want a police chief to be talking about that. But that’s what’s driving our issues here,” Weighill said.

Separately, the police chiefs association announced Tuesday that members had passed a resolution calling on the federal government to approve a new roadside screening tool that could help police better detect drug-impaired drivers. Such a tool could be similar to breath-testing devices currently used to detect alcohol.

The advocacy group MADD Canada has been pushing lawmakers in Ottawa on the idea of random roadside saliva testing — a system already in use in Australia and Europe but is likely to draw civil liberties concerns here.

—With files from The Canadian Press 

Dquan(at)postmedia.com