Local First Nations are calling for their members to be appointed to fill vacancies on the Vancouver Police Board.
Two spaces on the board have opened in the last year amid high-profile resignations. Former chair Faye Wightman left last month citing a “flawed” structure and interference, while Rachel Roy left last June over the handling of the return of police to city schools.
Leaders with the Squamish, Musquam and Teleil-Waututh First Nations now say those spaces should be filled with Indigenous representation as a key step towards reconciliation.
Appointing representatives from the three nations was a key call to action enumerated in the City of Vancouver’s United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) strategy, developed with the nations in 2022.
“Being on the police board is vital, it is integral for us to be a part of it considering the City of Vancouver is referenced as a city of reconciliation, it is an important step forward,” Squamish Nation Coun. Wilson Williams told Global News.
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“We have been ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in our own village for far too long. We are going to be a major part of the growth of the City of Vancouver, with our development in Senakw. Not only that, with our MST partnership and land development with the other nations.”
The Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General confirmed to Global News that it was already working with the Musqueam Indian Band to appoint one of its members as a representative to the police board.
Williams said Indigenous representation is critical on the board not only because many of the nations’ members live in the city, but because Vancouver is also home to a large number of urban Indigenous people from across the country.
Data has shown Indigenous people are dramatically over-represented in interactions with police in B.C., and the department in Vancouver has also faced criticism over its handling of investigations into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Williams pointed to the 2019 case of a Heilstusk grandfather and granddaughter who were handcuffed while trying to open a bank account in Vancouver as an example of how work remains to be done to improve the relationship between Indigenous people and police.
“I think it’s an integral part of a solution having the local First Nations on the police board,” he said.
“Not only being in rooms we’ve never been in before, but having meaningful dialogue, looking at true reconciliation, how we can make a stronger community, and have that feeling of Indigenous involvement and inclusion and having a voice.”
The Vancouver Police Board is currently chaired by Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim. Vancouver city council appoints one member, while seven others are appointed by the province.
The provincial government is expected to amend the Police Act this year to remove mayors from the chair position of municipal police boards.
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