Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations told Global News he suffered racist police action when he was younger.
Cameron said he was celebrating Canada Day with some friends, all of whom were white, in North Battleford, Sask., when he was a teenager.
He said an RCMP officer arrived, perhaps responding to a noise complaint.
“Out of the whole crowd, guess who got taken to the cop car, my head smashed in against the side of car, and my arm almost broken? The only First Nation guy in the crowd,” he said, speaking over Zoom from Witchekan Lake First Nation.
Cameron said he spent the night in jail.
He mentioned the incident when speaking to Global News about the FSIN’s support for the demonstrations happening all across North America in response to the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his kneck for nearly nine minutes.
The FSIN supports the demonstrations, he said, because Indigenous people also suffer at the hands of police.
He pointed to Chief Allan Adam of the Athabascan Chipewyan First Nation, who recently went public with his allegations that RCMP officers beat him when arresting him for expired vehicle licence plate tag.
He said every time he saw a new incident, he feels “the emotions of anger, of heartbreak, upset and sometimes a feeling of hopelessness, because we’re just not getting anywhere.”
“This continues to happen year after year.”
He said the Canadian justice system needs to be overhauled and the incident with Chief Adam shows that police officers should wear body cameras.