Police investigating police is not enough, town hall on Nunavut RCMP oversight hears

Three police-involved deaths in Nunavut since December have left some some calling for a new way to hold RCMPaccountable.

Investigations after a police-involved death are mandatory, and technically they are carried out by an external bodyanother police force.

But a police-on-police investigation is fraught with credibility problems, says Thomas Rohner, a former reporter for Nunatsiaq News who covered investigations into alleged police misconduct.

"One police force investigating another cannot escape the appearance of bias," he said regardless of whether bias is present or not.

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Rohner organized a town-hall style meeting on the subject last night in Iqaluit where he made the case for Nunavut RCMP to invent a new method for managing police accountability.

Currently, the Ottawa Police Service investigates Nunavut RCMP in the case of alleged misconduct or incidents involving death. Rohner argued that this model is insufficient.

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He advocated for civilian oversight of the territory's police force, perhaps in the form of a civil liberties union, but in part he said he organized the event looking for suggestions.

An obvious problem with the current model is that, although a police-on-police investigation may qualify as an external probe, the information gathered is not made public or reviewed by an independent civilian body, Rohner said.

Pulling from a review of research of police-on-police investigations conducted by the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP, Rohner said police need the confidence of those they police and making the information public is one way to help achieve that goal.

Nunavut could create new oversight model

"Nunavut has the opportunity to forge its own path instead of just copying what it sees in other jurisdictions," Rohner said.

Senator for Nunavut Dennis Patterson said the unique political makeup of the territory as defined by the land claims agreement primes Nunavut for unique solutions.

Patterson said the territorial government, which is still less than 20 years old, has spent a lot of energy learning how to govern, but could spend more time developing new ways of doing things.

Ontario Senator Kim Pate agreed, saying she would like to see Inuit build their own justice system as opposed to working within one imported from other places.

The long time prisoners' rights activist said the issue of police investigating police is slippery because it involves individuals investigating their friends, colleagues and communities.

But there's more to be concerned about in Nunavut, she said.

"It seems to me that the overlay of the system, and those who have come here to develop it in what appears to be an equal manner, is actually not equal because not everybody is starting on the same footing," Patesaid.

"We are talking about fundamentally different cultures, different ways of life and lived experiences."

Pate suggested a council of elders might be part of the solution to building an accountable police force.

Prevention not prison

Pate visited all three of the adult jails in Iqaluit before the town hall.

"I asked how many non-Inuit were in the jails, and I was told, 'probably none',"she said.

When she learned that a new prison is slated to replace the Baffin Correctional Centre by 2021, with a price tag of around $76 million, she said she want to see that money go instead to crime prevention.

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"What I heard is the biggest resource available is jail," she said. Instead, she says the money should go to women's and homeless shelters, mental health facilities, and on-the-land programs.

"Those resources would not only benefit individuals but entire communities, so I really think we need to be challenging and reallocating resources to people, not to prisons."

But Iqaluit resident Mary Wilman says she has heard community rehabilitation programs and elder-oversight of the police and courts suggested before.

"You almost have to analyze where we are, in order to identify where we need to go."

Wilman says she feels town halls like this one are necessary to ensure that analysis happens. Butsince the same ideas are being suggested, she wants to see a formal review of how far Nunavut has actually progressed on implementing alternative justice programs.

Then, she said, the territory can build toward thenext steps and fix bottlenecks in the justice system.

Last year, Justice Minister Keith Peterson commissioned a review of police oversight in other jurisdictions, but the results of the review will not be made public.