First Voice calls on Pat Roche to reconsider his assertion that systemic racism isn’t a problem in the RNC

CBC News: St. John’s-based Indigenous group says it’s deeply disappointed that Pat Roche, chief of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, hasn’t responded to repeated requests that he reconsider his position that there is no systemic racism in the RNC. CBC News:

Justin Campbell, program manager for First Voice, a coalition led by the Indigenous group First Light, said it shows that the RNC’s leadership “feels that they don’t need to be accountable to the communities that they are meant to be serving.”

“From our perspective, and the perspective of many other Indigenous organizations, the evidence is overwhelming that racism exists in police forces.”

Systemic racism exists when there’s an outsized impact on a particular community based on the actions of an institution, noted Campbell. 

“So Indigenous women are much more likely to be murdered or go missing. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls said the lack of police action in that specific area was directly responsible for those differential outcomes,’ he said.

This past summer, First Voice released a draft report saying systemic racism is a problem in police forces across Canada, including in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Days later, in late July, CBC News asked Roche if he thinks there is systemic racism in the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. Roche responded, “I don’t believe there is and I’ll leave it at that.” 

Indigenous organization reaching out to police … and getting no response back, that’s another example of systemic racism.- Justin Campbell

Since then the Indigenous group First Voice has released its final report and has repeatedly asked Roche to reconsider his position on systemic racism in the force.

“We reached out over email. We reached out by couriered letter. We made a number of public statements asking him to reconsider his position and providing further evidence that we had that systemic racism exists and is a problem that needs to be addressed,” said Campbell.

“We received no response to any of those.”

To date, the RNC’s chief also hasn’t responded to CBC News’s repeated requests for comment.

First Voice says the very fact that police won’t respond to their calls to discuss systemic racism in policing in the province is itself an example of systemic racism.

“This exact situation of Indigenous organization reaching out to police with very legitimate and valid concerns, offering to work with those police forces to solve those problems and getting no response back — that’s another example of systemic racism,” said Campbell.

Campbell says the RNC must respond to questions about systemic racism.

“Systemic racism is clearly a problem here. Indigenous people are much more likely than non-Indigenous people to be the victims of crime. So the lack of response from police is very troubling to us,” he said.

First Voice calling on justice minister to step in

First Voice says the establishment of a civilian-led police oversight board would address systemic racism, and it’s calling on Newfoundland and Labrador’s justice minister to act.

“The fact that we haven’t been able to make any kind of headway with the RNC in particular on the issue of systemic racism despite all of the evidence that we have that shows that it’s a problem and despite our own outreach efforts means that someone else has to step in an take some accountability and show some leadership. The Minister of Justice, John Hogan, is the obvious candidate,” said Campbell.

Last week, upon receiving First Voice’s report, Hogan wouldn’t commit to making any decisions yet but said he’d be looking closely at the report and its recommendations.