Police/Aboriginal relations show strain

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Police officers from just across Canada attended a national policing conference in Regina from Oct. 12 to 15 that focused on improving relationships with Aboriginal people.

Called "Building One Fire," the conference focused on giving police officers a better understanding of the factors that frequently bring them into conflict with Native, Metis and Inuit people.

One highlight of the gathering was a speech by Saskatoon provincial court judge Mary Ellen Turpel Lafond.

A member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, Turpel Lafond said if her audience was looking for the place where police/Aboriginal relations were most strained, they'd "come to the right place."

"I always feel I need to apologize to visitors who come to Saskatchewan because we have the dubious distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in Canada of Aboriginal people," she said.

The judge spoke about the social causes of the problems police see in Aboriginal families and communities. She said she wasn't fond of the term "residential school syndrome" because she found the term "inter-generational trauma" to be more accurate.

"Inter-generational trauma has greatly wounded our people, especially the youth," she said.

Siting a study by Saskatchewan physician Dr. Joe Manson, Lafond said that more than half of the young Aboriginal people in custody in the province suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. She said police need to be aware they are dealing, in many cases, with people who are suffering from an "irreversible disability."

"That's not to suggest they're not responsible for their conduct. But their responsibility is quite diminished," she said.

Turpel Lafond said she sympathizes with them when they deal with these traumatized "orphans of alcohol" and added that Native people working in the system must feel even more pressure than non-Native people.

"I suspect it's very difficult and I don't think it's recognized enough," she said. "I'm sure you must wonder 'Why can't I be a non-Indian RCMP officer?' Well, the Creator didn't make you that way."

Trends in the province and across western Canada alarm the judge.

"In this province we have a profound problem," she said. "In the not-too-distant future, given the demographics, for two-thirds of the people in this province the main industry could soon be in locking up the other one-third."

She also noted the rise in youth gang membership on the Prairies and said it's another symptom of the inter-generational trauma caused by alcohol abuse.

"A gang is a collective bargaining unit for these kids who have no other social or economic power," she said.

Other workshops took dead aim at the issue of gangs and alcohol. They were all directed at police officers in a way intended to help the police understand the problems so they could find some compassion in their hearts for the people they must arrest or otherwise deal with.

Constable Laurie Cote, a Saulteaux man from the Cote First Nation, has worked the gang beat in Regina for four years. He gave a detailed presentation of the basics of gang life during his workshop. Naming names of both offenders and the cities, towns and First Nations where they're active, Cote explained the meaning of gang graffiti, hand gestures and the way youth gang members are initiated into adult gangs.

"It's a problem that's not going to go away," he said.

On average, 20 per cent of the inmates in correctional facilities in Saskatchewan are connected in some way with a gang, Cote said, and the problem is growing.

He said the Native Syndicate is the largest gang in the province but the Saskatchewan Warriors and the Indian Posse also have a significant membership. Youth gangs like the Crazy Cree, the Crips, the Souls of Mischief, the Westside Local Thugs and the Maple Creek Mafia are usually affiliated with one of the adult gangs.

"Our First Nation youth are used to commit various crimes across this province," he said. "There are a lotf reasons they join gangs but the bigest one is the need for acceptance."

Wayne Apperley impressed his audiences with the brutally honest presentation he gave on what it's like to be a chronic alcoholic. He started out by telling the police officers that research has shown that, of 36 people who reach the chronic stage, 34 die, one goes insane and one gets well.

"I know about the stereotype," he said. "The bum with the bottle in the bag staggering down the street."

He told of his time in four treatment centres and 11 detox centres and of his three suicide attempts, not in language designed to attract sympathy. He believes society treats very sick people with very little compassion in this area and the police need to change the way they deal with drunks.

"This is one of the things that's killing more people and no one's doing anything," he said.

He said alcoholism distorts a person's perception of his or her actions and police must remember that people behaving in a manner they see as seriously irresponsible, dangerous or criminal may be doing the best they can at the time.

"I read something somewhere that really summed it up for me," he said. "I judged myself by my intentions but the rest of the world judged me by my actions."

Now two years and two months into his latest (and he hopes final) stretch of sobriety, Apperly said there are some basic changes that should be implemented if alcoholics are to get the help and support they need to fight a very difficult battle. He believes there should be counsellors on staff at the drunk tanks.

"Especially for youth," he said. "I think there should be on staff people there. At the least, if you call AA, they say 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, they'll send somebody. This is our young generation. If they don't get help, they're going to die."

He said most police stations are within easy reach of a bar where a chronic alcoholic can get himself right back into a drunken state and ht shows the insensitivity of authorities in this ara.

"I've heard people say, 'I'm a recovered alcoholic.' Well, that doesn't happen. You'll be recovering the rest of your life. This is a compulsion you do not get over," he said. "