The colonial origins of the Canadian federal police have left their mark on the pattern of its by turns abusive or neglectful treatment of Indigenous peoples, argues John Clarke

An inquest has just been conducted into the death of John Ettawakapow, an Indigenous man whose life came to an end in 2019, as he lay on the floor of a police cell in the northern Manitoba town of The Pas. After Ettawakapow was arrested for public intoxication, he was brought into a local police station where he was ‘dragged into the cell by two RCMP officers and left on the floor with two other inmates, just after 7 p.m.’

Video footage that was played at the inquest shows that, about an hour later, one of the other men in the cell rolled over and accidentally placed his leg on Ettawakopow’s neck for about forty minutes. ‘John Ettawakapow struggled to remove it himself but no one entered the cell until hours later.’

RCMP policy calls for those in custody be checked every fifteen minutes, ‘which several RCMP officers admitted at the inquest they didn’t know.’ No check was conducted until 1.30 AM, which was five hours and fifteen minutes after he had been placed in the cell, and by this time it was too late to revive the unresponsive Ettawakapow. Efforts were made to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead thirty minutes later.

Ben Wickstrom, the counsel for the inquest, noted that ‘if there was somewhere in The Pas to house intoxicated people other than in police detention, Ettawakapow’s life could have been saved.’ Jeremy Ettawakapow, the son of the dead man, told CBC News that he ‘could have had another day. He could have another month, could have another year … That’s something that I’m very heartbroken about.’

Manitoba’s Independent Investigation Unit, the province’s so-called ‘police watchdog,’ has already cleared the cops of any wrongdoing in the death of Ettawakapow, though the judge who presided over the inquest may still bring down some recommendations. However, the harsh reality is that Indigenous deaths in police custody are frequent events in Canada and, sadly, it is very unlikely that this inquest will make any significant difference.

Pattern of neglect

The record of inquests like the one held into the death John Ettawakapow is extensive and the same pattern of neglect and cruelty is evident in example after example. In October of 2022, APTN National News reported on an inquest in Thunder Bay, Ontario that was underway into the deaths in of two Indigenous men in police custody. Donald Mamakwa died in August 2014 and Roland McKay in 2017. Among the witnesses was Ina Kakekayash and the two men who died were her son and brother respectively. Speaking of her son, she testified that ‘we wouldn’t be sitting in this place today if he had been taken to the hospital first, not in the jail.’

Both of the men who died had undiagnosed medical conditions and inquest ‘counsel Peter Keen opened the first day of the inquest by telling the jury that they [could] expect to hear evidence that both Mamakwa and McKay could have survived if they had been taken to a hospital’ instead of being arrested for ‘suspicion of public intoxication.’ The police lawyer who was present intervened to exclude video footage that showed how another arrested Indigenous man in custody was treated on the same night that Mamakwa was arrested.

At the end of the inquest, the jury recommended that ‘Thunder Bay police and paramedics should receive mandatory, ongoing training on anti-Indigenous racism, unconscious bias and the history of colonization.’ The deeply ingrained racism of this particular police force has become a national scandal and, in April of this year, Indigenous leaders and families called for it be disbanded. Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, stated that it ‘is time for the provincial government to show they care about what is happening in Thunder Bay and disband this Service. Our families don’t need any more reports – they need action.’

Indigenous deaths in custody, are a reflection of the whole structure of colonial policing in Canada. The way in which Indigenous people are treated is clearly seen in a practice that came to light some twenty years ago that was being carried out by police in Saskatoon. It was referred to as ‘starlight tours’ and it involved driving Indigenous people outside the city and abandoning them without protective clothing in the dead of winter.

Darrell Night, of the Cree Nation, played a major role in exposing this abusive behaviour. He was himself picked up by the police and dropped off in -25C (-13F) temperatures despite the fact that he ‘was wearing only a light denim jacket, and didn’t have any gloves or a hat.’ Fortunately, he knew of a place where he could find shelter but ‘a few days later two other men – Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner – were found frozen to death in the same area Night had been dropped off.’ Despite a massive public outcry, no Saskatoon cop was ever held accountable for these deaths.

The question of murdered and missing Indigenous women in Canada shows the link between abuse and neglect in the conduct of police forces. Human Rights Watch, in a report dealing with ‘abusive policing and failures in protection of Indigenous women and girls in northern British Columbia, Canada,’ has noted that the ‘province … has been particularly badly affected by violence against indigenous women and girls and by the failure of Canadian law enforcement authorities to deal with the phenomenon.’

The report produces evidence of brutal treatment and physical assault on Indigenous women by police, but it also shows how little interest there is in keeping them safe or seriously investigating when then are harmed or go missing. A community service worker commented that the ‘most apparent thing to me is the lack of safety women feel. A lot of women, especially First Nations women we see, never feel safe approaching the RCMP because of the injustices they’ve experienced … The system is really failing women.’

The fact that so many Indigenous people are dying in police custody is a reflection of the degree to which they are overpoliced and incarcerated. A report issued by Public Safety Canada, in 2023, showed that despite ‘accounting for approximately 5% of the adult population, Indigenous Peoples continue to be overrepresented in the federal correctional system, accounting for 28% of all federally sentenced individuals and 32% of all individuals in custody; and Indigenous women account for 50% of all federally incarcerated women.’

Colonial policing

Policing in Canada was greatly influenced by the place the country occupied within the British Empire. The establishment of the Metropolitan Police Force in London, in 1829, ensured that police forces were established in Canada in order to discharge the same general social-control function as the Met. However, the task of policing Indigenous populations also shaped how things developed here in particular ways.

The federal police force in Canada, the RCMP, evolved from the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) and this body was established specifically as a colonial force, modelled on the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). It was dedicated to the clearing the Indigenous Nations from the plains so as to establish a settler population. The influence of this approach has continued to exert a powerful influence down to the present day.

The horrible and needless death of John Ettawakopow in a police cell in Manitoba was certainly attributable to a shocking indifference towards his safety and well-being among the RCMP officers who were present that night. However, their attitudes and conduct were shaped by the colonial relationship between Indigenous people and the Canadian state and the forms of policing that this has produced. No meaningful change is possible until this reality is accepted and acted upon.