Chantel Moore's mother walks 33 km in B.C. on anniversary of daughter's killing by police

A couple of months after Chantel Moore, 26, was shot and killed by Edmundston Police during a wellness check in New Brunswick in 2020, Moore's mother and daughter were sitting in a Subway when an RCMP officer walked in. 

"She was beside me, trembling, this little six-year-old shaking, asking 'Are the police going to kill us?'" said Moore's mother, Martha Martin. 

Martin, a member of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in B.C., said the moment in the sandwich shop led her to try and create a safer world for her granddaughter, and to honour her daughter's memory. She and other community members spent June 4 — the fifth anniversary of Moore's death — on a 33-kilometre memorial walk from the Tofino-Ucluelet Junction to Tofino, B.C. 

Martin said she chose to hold the walk on Vancouver Island rather than near her home in New Brunswick because of the difference in her relationship with local police in both places. 

"Right now I'm still not comfortable doing these kinds of demonstrations within the province of New Brunswick," Martin said.

She pointed to the killings of Rodney Levi in 2020 and Iggy Dedam in 2024, who were both killed by RCMP in New Brunswick during mental health crises. 

In an emailed statement to CBC Indigenous, Edmundston Police Chief Steve Robinson said that the force is working to build relationships based on trust and co-operation, and that most staff have received cultural sensitivity training. 

"In regards to wellness checks, our Police Force is now equipped with body cameras and the mobile crisis service is regularly called upon when it is needed," he said in the statement. 

They have also hired a full-time outreach worker, Robinson said.

An Indigenous-led crisis intervention team was operating in New Brunswick when Dedam was shot by RCMP but the team was not alerted by police until after Dedam was killed. 

'A safer feeling'

In order to feel comfortable holding an event for Moore in New Brunswick, Martin said she would like to have more conversations about the impacts of police violence which she says hasn't happened with any forces other than the Victoria Police Department (VicPD). 

"Being out here [in B.C.] and being able to work alongside [Victoria police] Chief Del Manak, there's a little bit of a safer feeling here than what it would be in New Brunswick," she said. 

Manak, who's been chief of VicPD for nearly a decade, said the department worked hard to build a relationship with Martin over the years since Moore was killed. 

They first met in-person at Saxe Point Park not long after Moore's death, when the community planned to hold a rally for her at the B.C. legislature. 

That began a years-long relationship where they mourned Moore and improved wellness checks, he said.  

Martin said she initially approached with skepticism, but when she saw follow-through, the relationship evolved. 

"The beauty of the relationship for me as the police chief was that Martha was the driving force behind making positive change in the Victoria Police Department in how police respond to mental health calls," Manak said. 

Manak said VicPD launched a new way to conduct wellness checks where a plainclothes officer works with a mental health clinician from the local health authority, and that the program is one of the highlights of his 35-year career.

Manak also said he was struck by how little anyone seemed to listen to Martin after the deaths of her daughter and son. Max Martin, 23, died in an apparent suicide while in police custody six months after his sister's death.

"Martha was a grieving mom and she just wanted answers," Manak said. 

"People weren't willing to give her the time to listen to her story and all I did was meet with her for an hour and a half and that really changed how I felt."

Martin said she thinks it helps for police and other officials to understand the long term impacts violence does to families, and being able to tell her story has helped make positive change. 

"That gave me hope that, if we can get this done in Victoria, we can get this done across Canada," Martin said.