It s not shocking. People know this has been going on for a long time. The only thing unusual about these cases is someone has come forward, and of course the deaths in Saskatoon. Vice-chief Lawrence Joseph of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations says the relationship between police and aboriginal people can get worse. Joseph, whose organization set up a hotline to handle a flood of other complaints after the Saskatoon deaths, says abuse by police officers is hard to stop.
Police seem to be protected by legislation.
And he doesn t believe getting one police force to investigate another is the way to change things. The RCMP have faced their own accusations of racism. It should be done by a credible, unbiased and totally impartial separate body, not another police force. Manitoba is already considering the idea. Two of the most publicized cases involved the Winnipeg police shooting death of native leader J. J. Harper in 1988 and the Ontario Provincial Police shooting of native protester Dudley George in 1995.