Former Mountie hopes race-based data project leads to lasting change
Thompson, Man., among communities where RCMP will begin collecting data
A First Nations woman who worked for the RCMP for three decades says she's cautiously optimistic about the RCMP's plan to collect race-based data in some communities, but says it needs to be coupled with education.
The pilot project aims to help the force better understand the experiences of people from racialized communities by collecting data on interactions they have with front-line RCMP officers.
Thompson, Man., is among the communities the project will look at.
Marge Hudson, who is from Berens River First Nation, was first hired by the RCMP in 1979.
She says she faced racism and harassment when she was an officer, despite being hired to help improve relations in the northern Manitoba communities she worked in.
Hudson filed a lawsuit against the RCMP over systemic racism stemming from her experiences but still has hope the Mounties can change.
She said she thinks this new project is a positive step.
"This may help, but they're going to have to go through some special training and have Native people in the academy teaching them."
But during her 30 years with the RCMP, Hudson said she saw many efforts to address racism come and go without much changing.
"The pilot project is to gather the information, and we were hired in 1979 to do the same thing. That's the way it seems to me."
Lack of specifics
Winnipeg-based criminal defence lawyer Zilla Jones said she's pleased to see the RCMP's commitment to gathering data and understanding how officers are interacting with these communities.
However, she's concerned about the lack of specifics around how the project will work, and how different communities will be represented.
She says it's important the data is broken down to represent specific groups of people.
"We need to see what is happening with Black individuals, we need to see what is happening with Middle Eastern individuals. We need to see what's happening with different groups of people."
Jones said there's still a lot of work to be done to build trust with racialized people.
"I don't think that doing a study on proving that you're acting in a biased way towards racialized people is going to necessarily build that trust," she said.
"I think the trust comes from what they do with that and what commitments they make after they get the information."
WATCH | RCMP's new race-based data project raises hopes for change:
In an email, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee said he thinks the initiative is a good thing as long as data is collected in a respectful way. He'd also like to see involvement and oversight from Indigenous organizations.
The RCMP didn't make anyone available for an interview Wednesday.
In prepared news release, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme says the initiative is about becoming a more modern and inclusive policing organization.
"The initiative isn't about singling out individuals," he said.
"It's about helping us identify and improve our policies, practices, and training to better support our employees. The evidence-based solutions it provides can empower us to better serve communities.
The data will be collected for one year before it's analyzed and the findings are publicly reported, an RCMP spokesperson told CBC News Wednesday.
With files from Josh Crabb