Latest news with #Wet'suwet'enNation
CBC
15-03-2025
- CBC
Advocates, family of man killed by RCMP launch 'people's tribunal' to probe police
Social Sharing Laura Holland's voice shook with emotion as she talked about her smart and affectionate son, saying she is "tired of waiting" for justice for him. Jared Lowndes, or Jay as his family called him, was shot twice in the back by police as he sat in his vehicle at a Tim Hortons drive-thru in Campbell River, B.C., in July 2021. Holland said at a news conference on Friday that her family was torn apart following her son's death at age 38, and she has been doing everything she can to seek justice for him and other Indigenous people who have been killed by police in the province. "The only spark of life that we have is that our loved ones are pushing us because if we don't speak out … they will keep killing us," she said. Holland joined with legal advocates and other groups on Friday to announce a "people's tribunal" to investigate crimes committed by police against racialized communities. "Systemic racism fuels an epidemic of police violence" against these communities, said a news release from the groups, which includes the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society, Care not Cops and Justice for Jared. WATCH | Laura Holland says justice system protects police over Indigenous people: Mother of Wet'suwet'en man killed by RCMP vows to continue fighting 11 months ago Duration 4:04 Laura Holland, the mother of Jared Lowndes, says the Canadian justice system continues to protect police officers who wrongfully kill Indigenous people. Her son, a member of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, was shot dead by police in Campbell River, B.C., in 2021, and the Crown announced Tuesday that no charges have been approved against the 3 officers involved in the fatal shooting. The B.C. Prosecution Service last year declined to lay charges against the three officers involved in the shooting. The service said Lowndes, from the Wet'suwet'en Nation in northern B.C., had reversed his vehicle into a police vehicle, tried to bear spray officers and had stabbed a police dog to death. The B.C. RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the "people's tribunal." Holland said her son was reading Schindler's List by the time he was 12, that he always did his best to take care of people, hugged everyone he knew and helped his elders. "It just seems impossible, and the only way for our family and (other) families to have any justice, to find any semblance of justice, is to have a people's tribunal." Holland said the tribunal will offer a chance for members and families who lost their loved ones due to police violence to talk about racism and other unlawful practices within Canada's police forces. The tribunal will gather and share information about crimes by police, the groups said. Tracking of police-involved deaths in Canada shows Black people died at six times the rate of their white counterparts, while Indigenous people die at eight times the rate of those who are white, according to the advocates. The tribunal's first event will be held Saturday in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside before travelling across B.C. Families to 'take back narrative' Latoya Farrell, policy staff counsel with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Indigenous communities have been over-policed and under-protected, and the forum could shine a light on systemic failures of law enforcement and the legal system. "We've seen time and time again that the narrative in the public is often detrimental to the credibility of both the community and the person who was killed," she said. "We see that the state and police control that narrative in a way to denigrate from a person's characteristic in order to justify why they deserve to be killed." She said having the tribunal will allow families to "take back that narrative," to tell their side of the story and to "rectify the harm" that the authority has done to their loved ones, not just in killing them but harming their memory and legacy. Holland said now is also a "critical time" for members of the Indigenous community to rally together given there has been so much news lately, with politicians denying remains found at former residential school sites and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim's leaked memo that suggested relocating Indigenous people from the Downtown Eastside. Meenakshi Mannoe, representing the advocacy group Defund 604, said the tribunal could help provide oversight of police. "It's a community-based forum that's going to uplift the voices of directly impacted family members, rather than investing power in colonial tools of government and lawyers and academics. It's putting that power back into the hands of community," said Mannoe.
CBC
21-02-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Wet'suwet'en leader wants accountability from RCMP after judge finds Charter rights breached
A Wet'suwet'en leader who will have her sentence reduced after a judge found RCMP breached her Charter rights during her arrest at a pipeline blockade says it doesn't feel like justice was served. "I never believed that the colonial court system could provide justice for us," said Sleydo' (Molly Wickham), a wing chief of the Gidimt'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation. Sleydo' said Justice Michael Tammen's decision to find there was an abuse of process during police raids was a step in the right direction. Tammen found Sleydo', Shaylynn Sampson, a Gitxsan woman with Wet'suwet'en family ties and Corey Jocko, who is Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) from Akwesasne, guilty of criminal contempt of court last year for breaking an injunction against blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline in November 2021. The three brought forward an abuse of process application alleging RCMP used excessive force during their arrests and that the group was treated unfairly while in custody. It asked the judge to stay the criminal contempt of court charges or to reduce their sentences based on their treatment by police. On Tuesday, Tammen decided some of the accused's Section 7 rights— life, liberty, and security of person — were breached during the police raid. As a result, he will reduce their sentences, when sentencing takes place in the coming months. "Nobody even really knows the extent of the harassment, violence and intimidation that we have experienced, and this is just the tip of the iceberg of what we have talked about in court," said Sleydo'. Sleydo said bringing forward the abuse of process application was important to try and bring accountability for the actions taken by the RCMP's Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG), which led the enforcement of the injunction. The RCMP said in a statement to CBC Indigenous that it acknowledges and respects the court's findings and is in the process of reviewing the decision. Federal Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said his office respects the outcome of the court's decision and will be looking at Tammen's decision in terms of the best way to proceed, to take any corrective measures internally. The B.C. Prosecution Service said it accepts the decision of the court and does not intend to file an appeal on the ruling. Defence lawyer Frances Mahon said Tammen's decision that there had been an abuse of process was "a pretty rare finding to get from a court." Tammen condemned comments made by several police officers on two different audio recordings comparing Sleydo' and Sampson to orcs for wearing red hand prints painted over their mouths — a symbol that represents missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. "My hope is that those RCMP officers will be ashamed of themselves and that there's going to be more education and discipline within the RCMP itself to ensure that this type of disrespect doesn't happen again, and particularly when people are in their custody after being arrested," said Mahon. Amnesty International statement Jocko said he doesn't feel like they have won or lost with sentencing still ahead. "We don't know what's going to happen yet, so super mixed emotions right now for me, personally," said Jocko. Amnesty International has announced that if the three are sentenced to jail or house arrest it will designate them as prisoners of conscience. The court had to put people in an overflow courtroom because there wasn't enough space for everyone who came to hear Tammen's decision being read Tuesday. "I feel like that is what the victory is to me, is the amount of community support that we have," said Sampson. Sampson said the court proceedings felt like an "important fight to have" even though she said she never felt like the court system would bring them a just outcome.
