The Dene Nation and Northwest Territories RCMP are about to begin a new shared effort to repair long-lasting tensions between policing and Indigenous people, which if successful, could set a precedent across the country.
The two parties, that will involve 10 RCMP employees and 10 Indigenous leaders, will be entering a one-year-long pilot program with Edmonton-based leadership development company Unstoppable Conversations.
The Dene Nation said in a news release on June 21 that the two parties will attempt to permanently end systemic racism against Indigenous people in Canadian policing.
“There is no time to waste on activating transformational change within Canadian policing by breaking down the walls of systemic racism,” said National Chief Norman Yakeleya in a statement. “For far too long our people have been held down by the unequal application of the Canadian justice system which has contributed to an ongoing cycle of inter-generational pain and trauma.
“Indigenous peoples are ready to move beyond platitudes that denounce racism and move towards tangible, clear and implementable action that transforms policing and justice systems.”
Chief superintendent Jamie Zettler, commanding officer of the Northwest Territories RCMP said in a statement that his police organization is aiming to work closely with the Dene Nation on addressing issues of reconciliation, systemic racism, inter-generational trauma, and cultural awareness in northern communities.
“The Northwest Territories (NT) RCMP will need to continue developing our understanding on this path with our communities,” he said. “With this evolving awareness and knowledge, the NT RCMP must transition to ‘operationalize’ this knowledge in our duties.
“This will look very different in five or 10 years as it evolves and continually changes as we learn from our communities what has worked and what has not.”
Zettler said it remains most important to ensure that there is an “open bilateral dialogue” with the communities where his police organization works.
Marie York-Condon, media spokesperson with the RCMP added on Tuesday that the RCMP sees this exercise as the next step in its ongoing relationship with northern Indigenous residents.
“NT RCMP has a good ongoing working relationship with the Dene Nation, and through mutual discussions and a desire to learn and grow in our reconciliation path, believes programs such as this is the next evolution in our journey,” she said.
Vik Maraj, co-founder and lead designer with the company said he has done a lot of work over the past two decades attempting to solve deep tensions that hinder operations within big organizations that have have included Lululemon and Westjet.
The company also has a lot of experience implementing the same kind of methodology between large entities like the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Northern Ireland.
“As a firm we have a unique method of transforming pretty intractable problems — things like systemic racism — and company cultures that are stuck in the past and can't or won't adapt to change,” he said.
“In this case what we have is the Dene Nation really leading the way and using our methodology to address the colonial embedded mentality that has been there between Indigenous people and RCMP for well over a century.”
The method distinct from traditional conflict resolution or mediation or psychology, he said, but the aims are similar "where relationships are permanently transformed."
“We try to help individuals and groups of people see debilitating patterns from their past that are ruining their ability create anything new,” he explained.
Having RCMP officials and Dene leaders in the same room transforming their deep-seated history and working towards joint solutions is entirely new, he said.
Maraj said participants will take part in workshops that “explore paradigms” — meaning how police officers have come to think about and reach conclusions regarding Indigenous peoples and vice-versa.
The process will allow people to get free from the limitations of some of these unexamined and handed down believes and conclusions.
The collaborative training announcement also follows a year last year which saw videos of high-profile violent arrests between the RCMP and Indigenous people going viral.
They included the violent of arrest of Dene Nation Independent Member Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in March 2020 at a Fort McMurray casino.
In Nunavut, a Kinngait RCMP officer attracted national attention after striking an intoxicated resident with the door of a pickup truck while the vehicle was in motion in June 2020.
Both incidents were in addition to the violent May 2020 arrest of George Floyd who was murdered while being arrested in Minneapolis by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department. .