‘Where is the reconciliation?’: First Nations leaders react to Sask. stabbing inquest

Uh good day everybody first I want to acknowledge the Creator I want to acknowledge all the leadership here in the room I want to acknowledge the families and you know let them know that our hearts and our prayers are with them that we want them to know that this

Their families did not pass away for no reason that we’re going to continue to fight for justice and we’re going to try to make sure that there’s change implemented across the country because of what happened because what happened was preventable if there was resources in place if there was supports in place

That we see that there is no there’s no transition homes there’s no um access to culture and and where does that come from where does that stem from it stems from colonization it stems from these prison institutions that are punitive and that are punishing our people and then send

Them back to community CU hurt people hurt people and that’s what we see here this lateral violence and then now you have the government being able to say they’re doing it to themselves no we’re not doing it to ourselves this comes from somewhere because traditionally prior to any Europeans or settlers

Coming to this land of Turtle Island we had our own governance systems we had our own tribal policing and it wasn’t called policing we took care of each other we had aich societies and those were very important implemented kinship laws that we took care of one another so this is not traditional to

Who we are this comes from colonialism this comes from settlers coming here and imposing their laws and their systems on our people and our land and that’s why we have to take a look at who owes us who dismantled our our traditional governance systems the Indian Act did we ever consent to the

Indian Act no the Indian Act was imposed on our people did we ever have a treaty implementation act no we never had a treaty implementation act and now we have the TRC calls to action and everyone’s talking about reconciliation well where is the reconciliation you know we talk everyone

Wants to wear orange shirts on orange shirt day well this is this is the direct effect of residential schools this is intergenerational trauma and this is going to continue happening and Rippling in our communities and it needs to come to an end and so that’s why we need to make sure that

Provincially the province is doing their part and federally the federals are doing their part to make sure that we are able to revitalize and Implement our traditional systems in Modern Times And so that our people can feel safe in their communities and so that we can all

Take care of one another and work together to build a brighter future because Canada really harps on being this beautiful country and it is but we continue to see these atrocities happening to our people that don’t need to happen anymore and so I just want to say you

Know with we stand with the families we stand with our Chiefs we stand with our people and that together we’ll continue to protect each other and look out for one another and that’s what it means to be first nation and that’s what it means to come from here so I thank everybody

Who’s here today and I thank everybody who’s reached out to the community and to the families and was there in the time of need but it doesn’t mean that it happens one day and we forget about it we’re going to continue to Advocate and we’re going to continue to work with you

And we’re going to continue to utilize all the lawyers and all the support that we can to make sure that this doesn’t happen again P thank the Creator for giving us a day beautiful day I think a the media here this afternoon bre from CBC to the Prince Alber Tri Grand Council Tribune all the media and they we trust you to put out the a good St a story out

There that’s going to reach out to the public right across Canada internationally and especially to the governments both levels of government right here in this press conference you’ll see James Smith Tre Nation ches and Peter Chapman and also the Prince Albert Grand Council the FSI and and also the AFM in

This press conference just for your information a um so the prince lber Grand Council they have you know our hearts go out to to the to the family members to the community in this difficult three three weeks that that we had with this scatch and Corners inquest they um you know to relive

That you know so that it was hard so you know our our hearts go out Prince Grand Council a u is an organization James Smith free nation is one of the member nations of the prince Grand Council and of course the prince lber Grand Council was there right from the

Start when this tragedy happened and throughout that time certainly we like to thank all the the First Responders at that point a u and also a um this time with with the inquest in these three weeks we’ve been there to support that that’s our Ro support the Nations and this difficult time

Again I um of course I think a take the process and the way the way they did it you know with with the cultural of the ceremonies that they I think that helped a lot and that’s important to note um the recommendations that have come up that’s that’s a purpose of

Inquest and inquiry is to come up with recommendations to make sure you know to prevent the future events tragedies like this so we at the prin Le Grand Council still have to look at the recommendations from from the jury and also from the coroner those recommendations that were there and a

Lot of those recommendations they went out to the to the first I’ll say the RCMP you know and the those recommendations we will look at but also to the corrections system there with the province and also with the FED we will look at those one very important area

You know when it comes to people being released whether it’s federal or a provincial that that support system is there but more importantly that communication whatever from who a probation officer to the First Nations the communication it’s very simple to do and that’s something that’s very doable it’s just about

Communication I just want to say that the of course policing that you know it’s a with with a province it’s it’s it’s 48 52% with 48 with the province and 52 with the federal a um when it comes to policing you know we’ve operated through what they call Community tripartite agreements all these

Years and that those CPAs have pretty much failed all of our first Nations you know they haven’t worked with the funding that’s their you know the uh the the the board the police board that’s supposed to be their in the First Nations that funding has has has gone out we’ve always asked to

The federal to the public safety Minister that we want to co-develop these policing agreements referring to the ctas we still want to do that I think with this on the table and developing something that’s the only way to go but more importantly also the funding for making safety communities that Federal

Funding that’s there that’s still has to be increased and we need that because we need to make Community safety plans in our communities for so we don’t have this happen in in other communities especially Jam Smith but more importantly you know those CPAs were supposed to lead they a stepping stone

Into self-administered policing so we want we support James Smith cre Nation to start that process and we asked the government of Canada and governments of skatan to help us out don’t they don’t just say here this is this is your responsibility put those resource people there if they can help

Us do our do the work and put th s administer policing in our communities Community safety officers we need the funding federal government thank you Province ofat for doing this training course but those people graduate they come to our communities there’s no funding we need that funding it helps for Community safety officers

In our communities so a lot of work to be done in our communities and they enclosing again I’ll say that we will look at the recommendations and we will we will we will not stop here in a year we’ll re look at the recommendation let’s see where we are in those recommendations

And I say to the both levels of government you know these recommendations we like to call them call to action not just recommendations even if you think of for for the funding you know it’s impossible make it happen make it happen call to action so with that I thank everybody here for the

Prince Albert Grand council with the Chiefs that I work with and we will continue to support James Smith PR nation and also you good afternoon everyone uh my name is uh Ronda Blackmore I’m assistant commissioner and commanding officer of the RCMP here in Saskatchewan I’d like

To thank uh Chief Burns and chief head and chief camon for inviting us to participate in the media availability today um we do feel it’s important that we are here that we’re part of the path forward of working together to move in a positive direction and a uh a better direction for First

Nations uh when you go back you know 150 years um we are the red coats and the Red Coats were there when the treaties were signed and we were there because our mandate was to protect first nation’s people and that is a very important mandate for us and we are uh very much

Determined to do better than some of the very black marks that we have in our history in the past related to residential schools and our involvement in that and we’re committed to uh looking at the inquest recommendations to um improving relationships with with James Smith but you know at the end of

The day there are 74 First Nations in this province and today we’re speaking about a a a horrific tragedy that happened at James Smith but there’s other vulnerable First Nation communities in this province uh that we need to address and in order to do better we need uh two things one is

Appropriate funding and we need human resources to be able to do that because while we often talk and examine the reaction to a a horrible tragedy such as this nobody wants this tragedy the the win comes when there is no tragedy when we don’t have victims when we don’t

Have to look at trying to heal people from horrible incidents uh and that’s where we want to move to more of that proactive work and we need resources to be able to do that one of the things the saskat and RCMP has implemented is our indigenous recruiting unit uh self-administered policing is certainly

The direction that our first nations in saskat one want to go but policing is a very complicated business it’s not something that you do overnight you don’t just create a police force overnight and we cannot leave that Gap in the meantime until self- administered becomes a reality so our indigenous

Recruiting unit has been working very hard to recruit indigenous people from Saskatchewan to police in saskatchwan our first nation communities uh have that understanding of culture and history and appreciation for our first Nations and that’s one of the things we’re working on um uh my preference would be that it was happening faster

Than it is but we do have a commitment that that this spring there will be an all- indigenous troop going through our training academy here in Saskatchewan and that is a huge step forward for us um so that we’re representative of the people who we police here it’s it’s very

Important that uh we’re doing that proactive work that we’re meeting that the Mandate under the the community tripartite agreements the RCMP is not a signatory to those agreements but we have a a great responsibility to deliver on those mandates and we can’t do that if we don’t have the funding and and

Human resources to do that and that’s one of the um the push the biggest push behind our indigenous recruiting unit to make sure that we are representing the populations we police so that we can work together in a positive way forward and not be sitting here speaking about

Tragedies that we can be sitting here and discussing with individuals like I’ve heard stories over the last uh few days in speaking with the um leadership from James Smith about landbased programs about cultural programs to make sure indigenous people are getting back to those cultural roots and that the

RCMP is part of that as they move forward in a good way we want to be part of that and so um again I want to extend my my condolences and sympathies to all of the victims and families to the entire James Smith kation to all indigenous people who have been impacted

By this tragedy um I extend an incredible um I am in awe of the leadership that we’ve seen from the the Chiefs at James Smith uh from the other Chiefs who have circled around and um held these people close as they’ve worked through these horrible moments that they’ve had to relive during the

Inquest I appreciate the opportunity to be able to be here today and to uh to work with our first nation leadership as we move forward in a positive way when it comes to policing in the province of sasan thank you

Aly Bear, The Federation of Indigenous Sovereign Nations’ (FSIN) third vice chief, reacts to the Saskatchewan mass stabbing coroner’s inquest, saying resources aligned with reconciliation are needed to avoid similar atrocities.

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