State violence against Indigenous people in Canada is not new. But the most recent, publicized case is especially disturbing. Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam was violently arrested, beaten and put in a chokehold by mounted police and it's all caught on dashcam video.
In the video, Wood Buffalo RCMP officers are shown tackling Chief Adam and punching him in the head, at one point locking him in a chokehold and leaving him bloodied.
We demand a federal investigation into how such police brutality could have occurred and gone unpunished for this long!
The encounter started on March 10th when officers in a Fort McMurray casino parking lot confronted Chief Adam and his family over an expired license plate. Chief Adam accused officers of harassment and was subsequently told he could not leave.
RCMP claims it was necessary to arrest Chief Adam and that in resisting arrest the officers "were required to use force."
CBC News obtained and published a 12-minute dashcam video of the arrest. The video has shaken Canadians and highlighted ongoing national discussion about police brutality in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on June 8th that he has "serious questions" about the arrest of Chief Adam, vowing to bring in "significant, concrete and rapid measures" to address systemic racism in policing. "We have obviously all seen and been deeply alarmed by the pictures that Chief Adam shared," Trudeau said.
But politicians say things like this all the time and never do anything. Not to mention Trudeau has not been a friend to Indigenous people. That's why we are demanding a federal investigation into this violent arrest of Chief Allan Adam by RCMP.
The RCMP continues to claim their actions were appropriate.
The RCMP's commanding officer in Alberta, Deputy Commissioner Curtiz Zablocki, told a news conference in Edmonton, "I don't believe that racism is systemic through Canadian policing. I don't believe it's systemic through policing in Alberta."
This is far from the only incident involving over-criminalization of Indigenous people in Canada. Tell the federal government to address systemic racism against Indigenous people shown by police forces such as the RCMP, starting with a federal investigation into this incident.
