For Immediate Release
WHAT: Indigenous families, communities and allies have been calling for a national inquiry into the killing of Indigenous People to no avail. If the Province won’t listen and the Federal government won’t listen, then it is time for people to take matters into their own hands. It is time for a People’s Tribunal.
WHEN: Friday March 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
WHERE: Vines Den 825 E Hastings St Vancouver, BC, V6A 1R8 [Google map]
WHO: Justice for Jared, Laura Holland, Care not Cops, UBC Social Justice Centre, Defund 604 Network, P.O.W.E.R, BC Civil Liberties Association, and Pivot Legal Society.
xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) territories / Vancouver, BC – Systemic racism fuels an epidemic of police violence against Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous peoples across so-called Canada. Canada’s history of deploying police against Indigenous people, and the humanity of Indigenous peoples is part of the violent trajectory of settler colonialism, from contact and continuing to the present day. Police forces at every level: locally, provincially and federally, inflict violence against Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous peoples and communities of colour.
Laura Holland, mother of Jared Lowndes and member of the Laksilyu Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, remarks on the pervasive impacts of police violence:
On July 8, 2021, my son Jared “Jay” Lowndes was killed by the Campbell River RCMP. He was an Indigenous man – a beloved father, son, brother, and friend to many – whose life was gruesomely cut short by the police. His loved ones grieve him daily. For nearly 4 years 2 I have sounded the alarm on Jared’s story, and also met so many other families carrying this incomprehensible burden – burying our loved ones, whose lives were stolen from us by the police. In the years since my son’s death, I have looked to the mainstream justice system and police oversight bodies for answers, and found zero accountability. The BC Prosecution Service chose not to lay charges against the officers identified, and these officers remain cloaked by anonymity. After finding no real solutions in the colonial (in)justice system, I am now looking to my community, to uphold justice through a People’s Tribunal into police killings and other acts of violence targeting Indigenous peoples.
#JusticeForJared, backed by a coalition of organizations rooted in community, legal, and research advocacy, will launch the People’s Tribunal into Police Violence on Saturday March 15, to mark the International Day Against Police Brutality. Following the first community event, held in the Downtown Eastside, the People’s Tribunal will travel across so-called BC to gather and disseminate information on crimes committed by the police, acting on behalf of the settler colonial state.
In BC, there are countless examples of unaccountable police actions which clearly target Indigenous, Black, Afro-Indigenous, and other communities of colour. This violence has been carried out by police agencies such as the RCMP Critical Response Unit (CRU-BC, previously known as C-IRG) on behalf of the development industry, in sovereign Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan territories. This violence has also been carried out in colonial laws that reproduce racial disparities in surveillance, detention and arrest practices.
Latoya Farrell, Policy Staff Counsel, BC Civil Liberties Association, remarks on the systemic failures and violence at the behest of settler colonial state of Canada:
For too long, Indigenous people and racialized communities have been overpoliced, underprotected, and disproportionately subject to overlapping systems of state violence, highlighting serious systemic issues rooted in colonial oppression. The effect has been a coordinated effort to destroy communities, erase culture, and suppress collective resistance. Today, the BCCLA stands in solidarity with families, grassroots activists, and other civil society organizations, as the people take back their power and shine a light on the systemic failures of Canada’s government, law enforcement, and legal system as a whole.
A People’s Tribunal is an opportunity for families and communities to rally together, develop solidarity with each other and confront the racist and violence prone institutions that continue the project of colonization through dehumanization, force and violence. It is well established by various human rights commissions that Indigenous and Black peoples are the primary targets of use of force incidents, often resulting in unnecessary deaths and police killings. Tracking (In)justice reports that racial disparities relating to police-involved deaths are on the rise, Nationally, Black and Indigenous peoples represent approximately 8.7% of the population, yet make up about 27.2% of police involved shooting deaths. When Tracking (In)Justice examined these disparities further they found that Black people die at six times the rate of their white counterparts while Indigenous peoples die at eight times the rate of their white counterparts. These statistics grossly underestimate the pervasive violence experienced by marginalized communities. We need a truly impartial system that is accountable to the people who are most impacted, and that responds more fully to the harms inflicted by police violence that tear people from their families, leaving them to pick up the broken pieces.
Tyson Singh Kelsall ਟਾਈਸਨ ਸਸਿੰ ਘ, RSW, PhD candidate, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University and researcher, Police Oversight with Evidence and Research (P.O.W.E.R.), reminds us of what Canadian police is designed to do:
Canadian policing does what it is designed to do on behalf of the settler-state, and what it is sanctioned to do via resource allocation and public policy. Tragically and predictably, in the face of police killings and other explicit violence, federal and provincial governments have chosen to not only abandon reeling in the power and scope of police, but are instead expanding both without oversight. A community-built and led tribunal is a direct response to this settler colonial violence and organized abandonment to know and share the truth, and to stop the killing.
Police and state institutions that green light the violence are never held accountable for these injustices. Court challenges and legislative change, including BC’s Special Committee for Reforming the Police Act, initiated in 2020, have failed materially to impact the lived and living experiences of Indigenous, Black and racialized peoples who bear the brunt of physical, psychological, and state sanctioned violence rooted in white supremacy and colonial ideologies.
While data collection is important in highlighting the level of violence, the level of impact is largely missing from the settler consciousness in Canada. Harrowing stories of families and communities left to deal with the aftermath of police violence are often discarded from the public narrative, disregarded in the halls of power, parliamentary and judiciary, and continue to obfuscate the impact of colonization and policing.
Background Information and Documents
BC Assembly of First Nations call for national policing inquiry – Dec 4, 2024
Families calling for national inquiry into police-involved killings – Oct 22, 2024
“You Can Not Keep Killing Us” – by Odette Auger – July 19, 2023
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