The Chiefs of Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn continue to call on the government of New Brunswick to hold an Indigenous-led public inquiry into the justice system, as they shared a midterm report from the province’s commissioner of systemic racism that had not yet been released to the public.
In a release Monday, the organization made up of New Brunswick’s nine Mi’kmaq communities alleged the report, which also calls for an inquiry and is dated April 2022, had been “suppressed.”
It said their chiefs, along with chiefs of other nations in the province, had been asking for an inquiry into systemic racism for two years and “those calls have been dismissed.”
Instead, the province appointed a commissioner to examine the scope of systemic racism in New Brunswick and offer recommendations.
“We knew this process was not a substitute for an independent inquiry,” the release said, noting that an inquiry would be independent of government and would have the power to compel witnesses.
The chiefs were also concerned by the fact that the commissioner was selected by the government “and no Indigenous or racialized groups were involved in the hiring process, the development of a Terms of Reference, and the assumed reporting structure for the Commissioner.”
The chiefs said those concerns had been brought to the government in April 2021, but “were dismissed.”
“Unfortunately, the fact this report was not released to the public is further proof of why a public inquiry is needed,” the release said.
The chiefs said they met with systemic racism commissioner Manju Varma in December 2021, when they shared “concerns, stories and rationale on the need for a public inquiry into the systemic racism (in) the justice system.”
The Chiefs of Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn said in the spring, Varma shared a copy of a midterm report with them that was supposed to be publicly released. The report included five recommendations, including a call for a public inquiry.
“We felt heard by the Commissioner and awaited the release of the report,” the release said.
However, the report still hasn’t been released – and the chiefs said they have since learned the commissioner had also shared the report with senior government officials, including Premier Blaine Higgs and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Arlene Dunn.
“We are concerned that the Government appears to be interfering with the Commissioner’s work and dictating what recommendations the Commissioner can make,” the release said.
“We believe this is too important not to be shared. It is in the public interest to know what the Commissioner prepared and how after a political review the report was not released.”
The chiefs say they will no longer participate in the commissioner’s work.
Late Monday afternoon, Dunn spoke to reporters and said she’s open to an inquiry but believes people want to see action more.
“Chantel Moore‘s mother recently said, ‘Look you know, I want real action,’ and I think that there was another Indigenous leader saying the same thing recently,” said Dunn.
“There’s been so many reports, there’s been so many commissions and panels and discussions. There’s been a lot of reporting the recommendations and what we need is real action.”
Moore, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman, was fatally shot by police in Edmundston, in June 2020 during a wellness check after she advanced toward an officer with a knife. The call for an inquiry was repeated last month, following a coroner’s inquest into Moore’s death.
Dunn said the province did not ask Varma to hold off on releasing an interim report. In fact, Dunn said she wasn’t expecting an interim report, just the final report in October.
Dunn said Varma met with the government in April, and as minister she was concerned the commissioner had not met with many government departments.
“In order to do a proper investigation in terms of systemic racism, part of her mandate was to engage with government departments … to really get a good understanding with respect to what’s happening within those systems,” Dunn said.
New Brunswick Green Leader David Coon said he has reviewed Varma’s interim report and expected that she would have made it public.
“The recommendations in the interim report say it all,” Coon said in an interview Monday. “The public needs to get behind those recommendations, and the government needs to adopt the recommendations and implement them swiftly.”
Global News also reached out to Higgs for comment Monday afternoon and did not immediately hear back.
What the report says
In addition to the call for an Indigenous-led public inquiry, the commissioner’s report, which was attached to the Chiefs of Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn’s statement, also recommended the provincial government do the following:
- Restore all place names that contain racist terminology against Indigenous peoples with their original or traditional Wabanaki names, or names recommended by First Nations, by June 21;
- Establish a team with the province’s independent review of the government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic to supplement the review’s analysis through a racial lens;
- Review all current discussions around mental health initiatives to ensure the lens of racial inclusion is applied, and to recognize the contribution of experiences of racism to poor mental health and mental illness;
- Initiate the process to establish a permanent office to combat systemic racism in New Brunswick.
The report said the basis for other recommendations “is emerging as we continue our engagement process.”
“These include (but are not limited to) issues around overt racism and racial abuse in the public education and healthcare systems, the lack of clear and easy-to-access public services for racialized immigrants, and the growth of extremist and right-wing ideological groups in New Brunswick,” it said.
“In many cases, these issues correlate with government policies and practices that sustain systemic racism in the province. My final report will address these in greater detail.”
The report can be read here.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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