Police Services and Inuit in Nunavik (Arctic Québec) Knowing Each Other Better to Help Each Other Better
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Police Services and Inuit in Nunavik (Arctic Québec) Knowing each other better to help each other better Research report submitted to Public Safety Canada January 2020 Cover photo: Prevention activity by the Kativik Regional Police Force at Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, 2019 @KRPF-KRG Report by Marie-Ève Marchand, Pascale Laneuville, Caroline Hervé, and Francis Lévesque. Reference MARCHAND M.-E., P. LANEUVILLE, C. HERVÉ, and F. LÉVESQUE. 2020. Police Services and Inuit in Nunavik (Arctic Québec). Knowing each other better to help each other better. Research report submitted to Public Safety Canada. Quebec City, Sentinel North Research Chair on Relations with Inuit Societies, Université Laval. The Sentinel North Research Chair on Relations with Inuit Societies has a mission to help develop harmonious social relations with Inuit societies. Its activities aim to produce new knowledge on relations between Inuit and non-Inuit and on the transformation of these relations in recent decades. It strengthens the excellence of Université Laval in northern research by enabling it to play a central role in the process of reconciliation with the Inuit. The Chair has been made possible by Sentinel North funding. Website: https://www.relations-inuit.chaire.ulaval.ca/ Email: [email protected] Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS _____________________________________________________________________________ I ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS _________________________________________________________________ III INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________________________ 1 METHODS ____________________________________________________________________________________ 4 COLLABORATIVE APPROACH AND QUALITATIVE METHODS ____________________________________________________ 4 INTERVIEWS ___________________________________________________________________________________ 4 WORKSHOP ___________________________________________________________________________________ 5 PROJECT LIMITATIONS ____________________________________________________________________________ 6 BRINGING POLICE SERVICES TO NUNAVIK __________________________________________________________ 8 ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE _________________________________________________________________ 9 SÛRETÉ DU QUÉBEC AND INTRODUCTION OF INUIT CONSTABLES _______________________________________________ 13 KATIVIK REGIONAL POLICE FORCE ___________________________________________________________________ 17 KATIVIK REGIONAL POLICE FORCE: CHALLENGES, REALITIES, AND INITIATIVES ___________________________ 19 AN INDIGENOUS POLICE FORCE _____________________________________________________________________ 19 CHALLENGES OF RECRUITING AND FUNDING ____________________________________________________________ 20 A DEMANDING SOCIAL CONTEXT ____________________________________________________________________ 21 SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE NORTH: ISOLATION, LAWS, AND JUSTICE SYSTEM ______________________________________ 22 POSITIVE ASPECTS OF THE JOB ______________________________________________________________________ 24 PROBLEMS OF POLICE OFFICERS ____________________________________________________________________ 25 RECENT KRPF INITIATIVES ________________________________________________________________________ 27 NUNAVIMMIUT VIEWS ON POLICE SERVICES _______________________________________________________ 31 NUANCES AND DIVERSITY OF VIEWS __________________________________________________________________ 31 NEGATIVE IMAGE OF POLICE OFFICERS: IMMATURITY, AGGRESSIVENESS, AND INDIFFERENCE ____________________________ 32 ABUSE OF POWER AND VIOLENCE ___________________________________________________________________ 34 RELATIONS WITH VICTIMS ________________________________________________________________________ 36 LACK OF HUMANITY IN ENFORCING THE LAW ____________________________________________________________ 37 COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS: LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING, EXPLAINING AND INFORMING __________________________ 38 PLACE OF INUIT IN THE POLICE FORCE _________________________________________________________________ 39 OBSTACLES TO COOPERATION ___________________________________________________________________ 42 MISUNDERSTANDING AND PREJUDICE ON BOTH SIDES ______________________________________________________ 42 NUMEROUS MISUNDERSTANDINGS __________________________________________________________________ 43 LANGUAGE BARRIER AND LACK OF TRANSLATORS _________________________________________________________ 45 DIFFICULT RECRUITING AND LIMITED RESOURCES _________________________________________________________ 46 AN INADEQUATE JUDICIAL AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK _______________________________________________________ 47 A DIFFERENT VIEW OF ASSISTANCE ___________________________________________________________________ 48 BUILDING A TRUSTING AND RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIP _____________________________________________ 49 RETHINKING THE OFFICER’S ROLE AND PLACE ____________________________________________________________ 49 i EDUCATING, RAISING AWARENESS, AND TRAINING ________________________________________________________ 50 KNOWING EACH OTHER BETTER AND WORKING TOGETHER THROUGH INTEGRATION __________________________________ 53 GETTING LOCAL SERVICES TO WORK TOGETHER __________________________________________________________ 54 RECOGNIZING AND PROMOTING INUIT KNOWLEDGE _______________________________________________________ 55 CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________ 58 PRIORITIES FOR ACTION TO IMPROVE RELATIONS BETWEEN POLICE SERVICES AND INUIT IN NUNAVIK _______ 60 REFERENCES __________________________________________________________________________________ 64 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW CODES _________________________________________________________________ 70 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW TEMPLATE ______________________________________________________________ 71 APPENDIX 3: WORKSHOP AGENDA _______________________________________________________________ 75 APPENDIX 4: WORKSHOP SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________ 77 APPENDIX 5: CALLS FOR ACTION OF THE VIENS COMMISSION FINAL REPORT ____________________________ 81 ii Acronyms and abbreviations BEI Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (Independent Investigation Unit) CLSC Centre local de services communautaires (local community centre for health and social services) DYP Director of Youth Protection ENPQ École nationale de police du Québec (Québec National Police Academy) FCNQ Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec JBNQA James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement KRG Kativik Regional Government KRPF Kativik Regional Police Force NRBHSS Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services RCMP Royal Canadian Mounted Police SAAQ Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (Québec Automobile Insurance Corporation) SPVM Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (Montreal Police Service) SQ Sûreté du Québec (Québec Provincial Police) Viens Commission Public Inquiry Commission on relations between Indigenous Peoples and certain public services in Québec: listening, reconciliation and progress iii Introduction With the launching of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2007, the national apologies for Indian residential schools in 2008, and the creation of the National Enquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2015, the federal government has shown its willingness to work toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. In Québec, following a crisis that got considerable media attention in 2015 and which involved the police services of the city of Val-d’Or and Indigenous women, the province launched a Public Inquiry Commission on relations between Indigenous Peoples and certain public services in Québec: listening, reconciliation and progress.1 The Commission sought to improve understanding of the causes of racism against Indigenous people in certain Québec public services, including police services. These different enquiries have uncovered the presence of many intercultural conflicts, discriminatory actions, and systemic racism that Indigenous peoples have endured in Canada. As a result, Public Safety Canada issued in 2019 a call for proposals to get more insight into current practices and policies in police services throughout the country. The aim was to gain a better understanding of problematic behaviours, as well as good practices that contribute to more respectful relations with Indigenous people. As part of this call for proposals, the Sentinel North Research Chair on Relations with Inuit Societies of Université Laval has proposed to analyze the specific situation of Nunavimmiut (Arctic Québec residents) by submitting a research proposal Relations of Police Services with the Inuit:2 Analysis of Practices and Policies in Nunavik. Its results are presented in this report. The region of Nunavik is north of the 55th parallel of the province of Québec and covers two thirds of the province. It is inhabited by around 13,700 residents (ISQ 2017) who are mostly Inuit and clustered in 14 villages along the coast. The villages are linked to each other and to the rest of the province only by air or sea. The territory of Nunavik has been inhabited for around 4,000 years and for 1,000 years by Inuit and their ancestors. Inuit used to be hunter-gatherers and practised a semi-nomadic way of life until they were settled in communities. Although Inuit and Qallunaat3 first met as early as the 18th century in the region, it was not until the early