Dear MP,

I’m writing to you to demand change to policing in Canada. As you know, police officers have
been involved in several recent deaths across the country, all related to Indigenous persons:
Rodney Levi, Chantel Moore, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Eisha Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart
Kevin Andrews and Everett Patrick. In addition, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allen
Adam was seriously assaulted by an RCMP officer in Fort McMurray, as was an unnamed Inuit
man in Nunavut.

A recent report by the RCMP shows firearms were used against civilians 5,441 times in the past
three years. The RCMP has also recorded the greatest number of deaths of civilians of any
police service in Canada. The RCMP does not have its own independent oversight body to
investigate complaints of use of force or lethal force by its members.

As my Member in Parliament, I am calling on you to take action on this issue. Please help
ensure the RCMP do not perpetuate Canada’s ongoing colonisation of Indigenous peoples. I
hope you share my vision of a country with processes in place to hold police officers
accountable when they severely assault or kill civilians, and especially Black or Indigenous
civilians.

With this vision in mind, I ask that you bring forward the following immediately:

 Establish an Indigenous civilian oversight body for the RCMP to investigate, lay charges,
and publicly report on all incidents related to officer misconduct, use of force, assault,
sexual assault and death. No police officers or ex-officers should be members of this
body or hired to investigate other police officers.
 Establish Indigenous policing units in all RCMP detachments serving Indigenous
populations, as recommended by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), Call for Justice 9.4. These units should lead all
community crime-prevention activities within Indigenous communities.
 Establish Indigenous advisory committees in all RCMP detachments serving Indigenous
people to advise on the detachment’s operations in that community, as recommended
in MMIWG Call for Justice 9.8.
 Require RCMP officers to follow the Rules of Engagement (ROE) utilized by the Canadian
military to restrict use of force.
 Amend the Criminal Code of Canada to allow fair prosecution of police officers’ use of
force against civilians:
o Section 25(1), which provides justification for police officers to use as much force
as reasonably necessary, should be amended to ensure that force should only be
used an absolute last resort, not because it would be “reasonable” to use it. A
person’s race or any mental health or substance use issues should never be
allowed to justify use of force.
o Section 25(3) provides justification to use lethal force when an officer believes on
reasonable grounds that it’s necessary for the self-preservation of the officer or
 anyone under their protection from death or grievous bodily harm. Lethal force
should never be justified. Officers should always be tried criminally when they
kill someone. A person’s race or any mental health or substance use issues
should never be allowed to justify use of lethal force.
o Section 26 specifies that an officer is only criminally responsible when the force
used is excessive. Any force used by officers is excessive, and especially any
lethal force, grievous bodily harm, aggravated assault or sexual assault. Officers
should be held criminally responsible for any lethal force, grievous bodily harm,
aggravated assault or sexual assault.
 Prohibit police officers from carrying lethal weapons on their person. Lethal weapons
such as guns and controlled energy weapons (i.e. TASERs) should be stored in police
officers’ vehicles. Whenever a lethal weapon is removed from a vehicle, the officer must
be required to file a report to account for its removal.
 The budgetary elements of these asks can be taken out of the existing RCMP budget.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Name