AFN pushes for inquiry into RCMP

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At almost the same moment that Grand Chief Phil Fontaine issued a statement at a press conference in the Yukon calling for a "contextual review" of the way the RCMP deals with Aboriginal people, an Assembly of First Nations staff member was echoing that call in Alberta.

Fontaine attended the inquiry into the death of Harley Clayton Timmers in Whitehorse. Timmers was shot to death by an RCMP officer on Sept. 8, 1998. After the inquest jury found that Timmers' death resulted because proper procedures weren't followed, Fontaine said on Oct. 8 that it's time for a close look at why Native people often end up dead when they deal with police officers.

"I've been calling for such a review for more than a year," he said. "Police force always seems to be lethal force when dealing with First Nations. The Solicitor General of Canada must meet with First Nations to determine the scope, mandate and terms for such a contextual review and this has to be done immediately. The federal government must not allow another life to be lost in such tragic circumstances. We have already lost too many lives."

Fontaine also said he plans to ask the solicitor general for a meeting to explore this idea.

On the same day, at the Jimmy Omeasoo Community Centre on the Samson Cree Nation territory in Alberta, Kathleen Mahoney was representing Fontaine at a press conference called by the family of the late Wilson Nepoose. Nepoose, a Samson Cree Nation member, served five years in prison for murder before he was freed after an Alberta appellate court judge called his conviction a "miscarriage of justice." Nepoose was later found dead in an apparent suicide that his family believes was caused by the trauma of his ill-fated encounter with the Canadian justice system. The family is going ahead with a lawsuit against the arresting officer, the prosecutor and both the provincial and federal governments.

Mahoney said that while the AFN supports the family's struggle for justice, the national First Nations organization is looking at the bigger picture.

"Why do these cases keep happening?" she said. "We have presently going on in Calgary the Jacobs inquiry, the Yukon inquiry just finished and there's other issues on the forefront about to emerge. The AFN is very concerned in seeing the linkages between all of these cases. The linkages appear to be a discriminatory attitude towards First Nations citizens, be they witnesses, be they accused of crimes or civil matters, and the way in which they're treated within the justice system.

That's the issue the AFN is concerned about and they want to get to the bottom of it. They want to have government look at it not on a case-by-case basis where inquiry reports are written up and put on a shelf to gather dust. They want see a nation-wide inquiry into the whole relationship with the RCMP to First Nations peoples."

The number of similar cases has reached the point where they can't be written off as coincidence, Mahoney said, adding that all Canadians should have an interest in examining the issue.

"What our national police force does in the name of Canadians, it does so in the name of all of us, and certainly if some members of our society are not getting justice, it should be a matter of concern for all members of society. So, certainly this is not just a First Nations issue, this is a pan-Canadian issue," she said.

Donald Marshall, Jr., a Mi'kmaq man who served 11 years in prison for a crime of which he was later proved innocent, also attended the Alberta press conference to lend his support to the family.

"The Nepoose family invited me down here not only to support their cause but to talk to their young people about justice amongst Native people. To me, Native people are targets in our justice system and I think we have to be educated and learn that the court system does not work for the Native people," he said. "I believe that Wilson Nepoose's story has been there for the last 13 years and that's a long time. I blieve it should be dealt with immediately."

A number of influential people in Alberta have joined the family in pressing the provincial government to call an inquiry into the police investigation and criminal prosecution that sent Nepoose to prison. So far, they claim, they've been stonewalled.

"There must be something wrong in the government, the RCMP and the courts if they don't want to deal with it and it makes you wonder who's on the wrong side," Marshall said. "I think this family is ready to deal with it and the courts will have to deal with it."

Lester Nepoose, Wilson's brother, said six years have passed since a petition was presented to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein that called for an inquiry into the matter.

"What happened to my brother took the spirit away from my brother and damaged him a lot. We met with our leaders today and the support is there and the lawyers have said they are moving ahead with it - and it's not going to stop here - so that the Native people, the uneducated people, will know that we will be there for them too if they are victims in a situation like this," he said. "Ralph Klein claims to be a friend of First Nation people. I would like to ask him what happened? Back in 1993 we gave him 7,500 names and we haven't received a call. The people who signed that petition, I'm pretty sure they'd like to know what happened. Why has there been a miscarriage of justice?"

Bob Sachs, an Edmonton lawyer who has taken an interest in the Nepoose case, said it has the potential to break down the obstacles to accountability that authorities construct when mistakes are made.

"The most significant aspect of the case is that it is, depending on your perspective, one of the worst or one of the best examples of how an injustice can happen to a Native Canadian and it just sort of slides away," he said.

"That's why it's so encouraging for the Nepoose family to have Donald Marshall here today to lend his support, for the Samson Cree Nation to come forward andindicate that they will do what they can to support the continuing efforts of the Nepoose family to clear their name, why Kathleen Mahoney is here today on behalf of the AFN to lend their support to the continuing struggle to right the injustice.

"This whole case is an embarrassment to the Alberta government, to the RCMP and to the federal government for that matter. You have to recall that the court of appeal called this a miscarriage of justice. I can't frankly understand why the federal government and the Alberta government aren't knocking on the Nepoose family door with an apology and an offer to help them in any way they can."

Instead, the lawyer said, government officials have abused their powers and privileges to protect themselves from bearing the responsibility of their mistakes.

"The defendants, being the federal government and the provincial government, have put up every roadblock possible to stall and delay this particular lawsuit. It becomes increasingly more difficult as time goes by for the family to continue a fight where they're continually stonewalled by government," he said.

Jack Ramsay, a Reform Party MP and a former RCMP officer, also attended the Alberta press conference. He has been involved in the case almost from the beginning and said he has taken a special interest in seeing the truth come out.

"I was involved in the case before I was elected and I know from the evidence . . . I'm one of the few people who has looked at the evidence from front to end and I know that Wilson Nepoose was not guilty of the murder he was convicted of and I know that he spent five years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. And in as much as I have possession of that knowledge, I will lend my support to any effort that will clear the air on this and allow the family to bring closure to the issue," he said.

"I can stand as a witness in my caucus and in the House and state as I have stated here today, and many other times, of my complete conviction and absolute nderstanding that Wilson Nepoose was innocent of the crime that he was convicted of and if the evidence that I looked at was placed before the Canadian people I think the vast majority, if not all, would admit that. Wilson Nepoose was granted a new trial, but the Crown of this province chose not to re-try him so that that evidence could be placed before the people and have his name cleared and that was not allowed."

Sachs stated bluntly that the only thing preventing the truth from coming out is political stonewalling.

"If there were to be at some juncture the political will to set this right, to see justice finally done in this case, I'm sure it could be done like that," he said. "If you were to ask Mr. [David] Hancock, who is the attorney general of Alberta, and Ms. [Anne] MacLellan, the federal justice minister, to actually take a personal look at this, I think Jack and I and Lester could convince each of them that there's no way in the world that this man should ever have been charged, tried or convicted, and that, in the end result, he did not do this."

Ramsay added that the request for an inquiry was rejected on the grounds that the RCMP was going to conduct an internal investigation into the matter. When the federal police force investigated itself, it found its actions were acceptable.

Sachs isn't working on the case, but he said he's been in contact with the lawyers who are doing so. He said the claim by the RCMP and the government that the investigation was conducted properly can be easily negated by the facts.

"Lawyers for the family indicate to me that they're confident they can prove otherwise, that there was gross ineptitude and one could almost go as far as to say that there was a cover-up and that Wilson Nepoose was railroaded," he said. "There is a systemic, discriminatory attitude both in the RCMP and I would venture to guess within the attorney general's department of Alberta. Because of that, because I hear statements like, 'It's just another I