'Our women don't believe in justice': Fear of police not going away in Lac Simon

Women in Lac Simonare still fearful of provincial police, two years after allegations of officersabusing Indigenouswomen first surfaced, a Quebec inquiry heard Wednesday.

Chief Adrienne Jrme of the Lac Simon AnishnabeNation, just east of Val-d'Or, Que., was testifying on the third day of the commission looking into relations between Indigenous people in Quebecand government services, notably policing and justice.

"Our women don't believe in the justice system," Jrmetold retired Superior Court justice Jacques Viens, the inquiry's commissioner.

"They're afraid of the police, afraid to make a complaint. They don't feel protected."

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The Quebec government launched the inquiry last December, a year after CBC/Radio-Canada reported several Indigenous women said they'd been physically and sexually abused by provincial police officers stationed in Val-d'Or.

Montreal police investigated the complaints but no charges were ever laid.

Jrmesaid that wiped away what little faith Aboriginal women had left in the justice system.

"The anger is still there. The injustice is still there," shesaid.

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AdrienneAnichinapeo, thechief ofKitcisakik, another Algonquin community 120 kilometres south ofVal-d'Or, said the women who had the courage to come forward to complain about police treatment in 2015 feel betrayed.

They need psychological and social support,Anichinapeosaid.

"These women have been left to fend for themselves."

Children fear police

Jrme said the mistrust of police is often establishedin childhood.

She said socialworkers for the government's youth protection agency ask too much of Aboriginal parentsand are too quick to seize children from their homes.

She testified youth protection workersare oftenaccompanied by police on home visits.

"Our children are afraid of police," she said."When they see a police car, they burst into tearsinside their homes."

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She said Lac Simon facesa host of social problems, including substanceabuse, suicides, school bullying and a major housing shortage.

She said policing, education, social, healthand psychological services are all chronically underfunded.

Jrmesaid the First Nations communities are left begging for money, and they're often caught between two levels of government.