The RCMP, which marks its 150th anniversary on Tuesday, is struggling with the recruitment, but also the retention, of Indigenous members.
The 26-year veteran began his career with the force in 1989 as special constable, a role assigned to police First Nations reserves. It was a rank below his non-Indigenous colleagues, who were better paid.After the program shuttered, Gladue transitioned into a job as a regular constable. The 25-year-old Metis man would then overhear offhand comments around the office, with ones like how a"dead Indian's a good Indian" later brushed off as stress when raised to a supervisor.
"If we as Indigenous people want to make change in Canada, we have to be on the inside," he said."We cannot run from it." She said the RCMP hopes to see cohorts of between eight to 16 Indigenous cadets learning together, with groups staggered over time to avoid a similar situation. Bear, a vice-chief with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, said when a First Nation needs the RCMP, it isn't there.
Bear said cases of officers using excessive force and not properly investigating the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls has only exacerbated the distrust towards the RCMP.Having more Indigenous officers"would do a world of good," Bear said, but she cautioned that it would not solve the problem of the system police work in.
Like Gladue, Cardinal first graduated as a special constable. After seven years on the job, he returned to Depot for training to gain his constable status."What are they going to teach me that I've already taught myself?" he said.Cardinal said he had aspired to move around the organization and work in larger centres, but found himself unable to.
In his home community of Bigstone Cree Nation, located about 320 kilometres north of Edmonton, he said they saw five RCMP members retire in the past decade -- and get"no recognition."
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