Equal Policing for First Nations Communities

Former police station in Kashechewan. Two young men died in their cells when it burned to the ground in 2006, over five years after a federal government report recommended it be demolished due to its poor, unsafe condition.

In early 2006, despite years of clear warnings of unsafe conditions and chronic underfunding by the federal government, a fire destroyed the dilapidated and unsafe police station in Kaschechewan First Nation in northern Ontario. Two young First Nations’ men were killed in the fire, trapped inside their cells. This case provides a horrific example of the consequences of unequal and inadequate policing in First Nations communities – conditions that would never be tolerated elsewhere in Ontario.

We represented a regional First Nations government in a coroner’s inquest into these deaths. We succeeded in convincing the inquest jury to adopt many important recommendations proposed by our client, including that First Nations policing be brought up to the standards enjoyed in non-First Nations communities.

Our client also filed a related human rights complaint seeking policing that is equal in quality to that found in non-First Nations communities. The federal government has raised technicalities in an attempt to block and slow down the lawsuit. It argues that policing services in First Nations communities do not need to meet the standards found in non-native communities elsewhere in Canada. In two preliminary decisions, the Canadian Human Rights Commission rejected that argument, and has decided in our client’s favour.