'We don't have to wait for a national inquiry to start making changes,' says Winnipeg police chief
*This is a special edition of The Current from Winnipeg where the show hosted a public forum on the issue of policing when it comes to missing and murdered Indigenous women.*
Winnipeg is a city seen as ground zero in the fight to bring national attention to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Chief Danny Smyth, a 30-year-veteran of the Winnipeg Police Service and NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine, an advocate for families of MMIW for almost 20 years, join The Current's Anna Maria in front of a live audience to re-examine the relationship between police and Indigenous communities.
AMT: What do you say to someone like Bernadette Smith and other family members who feel that there were real areas where police let them down?
It causes me pain when I when I hear police in general just describe things in an insensitive way- Winnipeg chief of police Danny Smyth
Danny Smyth: I think we need to hear that. I think police are becoming more responsive to the concerns of women, in particular the Indigenous community. I think we're seeing an evolution here. I think you know it's something that's catching national attention and it's certainly something we're responding to in a much different way than we did 10 or 20 years ago.
AMT: As I've been talking to people here, they refer to the death of Tina Fontaine when she was killed. You referred to her as a child.
DS: She was a child.
AMT: And people point to your choice of language in the case of Tina Fontaine as a bit of a turning point with police. Talk to me a little bit about your decision to use the language you use.
DS: I think it's important to be sensitive to the dignity of our victims and our families. You know the families of victims ... It causes me pain when I hear police in general just describe things in an insensitive way so I know personally I try to be very careful when I speak. You'll rarely hear me use the word sex trade worker. These are women that are being exploited. You know these are johns, these are predators. So I try to be cautious, try to be respectful to the families and the victims.
AMT: What are you thinking when you listen to Chief Smyth?
Nahanni Fontaine: You know it's a conversation ... that has been ongoing for many, many years. It's something that families have been talking about for the last you know 30 or 20 years and I know that in Winnipeg we've been talking about it for close to 20 years.
I will say that there have been some changes and I want to kind of pick up on what Bernadette was talking about earlier in respect of mugshots. So actually here in Winnipeg there were a group of predominantly Indigenous women from a variety of different organizations that kept lobbying and fighting for the WPS (Winnipeg Police Services) and for the RCMP to stop releasing mugshots because what it does intrinsically is when that mugshot is released to the public it doesn't really induce the public to that particular woman. And now the WPS and the RCMP don't do that.
I think that one of the key issues still today remains the communication process between policing institutions and families.- Nahanni Fontaine
AMT: Were do you see room for improvement with with the families then as they try to bring their stories forward? What still needs to change?
NF: I think that one of the key issues still today remains the communication process between policing institutions and families. You know the police are, we understand, very busy as well. But families need that information. The other piece [is] training somebody in the community that people ... trust and feel that they can be safe with, and they can tell … traumatizing information and scary information and know that they're going to be listened to, know that they're going to be respected.
AMT: We know the national inquiry is not going to look at police action, should it?
DS: That's a tough one. I think one of the clearest messages that I heard and it was from Perry Bellegarde, it was we don't have to wait for a national inquiry to start making changes, or to start taking actions and including being accountable for our own actions as police. And I don't think we need an inquiry necessarily to tell us that although I see the importance of the inquiry.
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AMT: Nahanni Fontaine, what do you want to see come out of this national inquiry?
NF: Well what I always point out to people is that the national inquiry first off is is a long time coming and is borne off of the fight and struggle of families and what families have wanted. And I think it's really important for Canadians to recognize that and to be supportive of the national inquiry because it may be the only opportunity that families have to have their loved one who's missing or murdered as a part of the official Canadian record, as a part of the official Canadian history.
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
Our Winnipeg public forum was produced by The Current's Josh Bloch, Cathy Simon, Kathleen Goldhar and Winnipeg network producer Suzanne Dufresne.