Elizabeth May Wants Canada To Accept U.S. Asylum Seekers Now That Country ‘No Longer Safe’

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is also calling on Trudeau to denounce the U.S. president’s actions.

By Ryan Maloney

 
CP Green Party parliamentary leader Elizabeth May and

 U.S. President Donald Trump are shown in a composite

 of images from The Canadian Press.

Elizabeth May says Canada must welcome asylum seekers wanting to flee the United States because it isn’t a secure country for racialized communities under the president’s leadership.

“We must not turn them away because Donald Trump has made the United States no longer safe,” the federal Green parliamentary leader told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday.

May called the press conference to address the protests against anti-Black racism that have erupted after last week’s police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, in Minneapolis. The situation has been made more dire by Trump’s incendiary words and actions, she said.

She noted Trump’s threat to use military action on protesters, his tweets that were flagged by Twitter as glorifying violence, and the National Guard’s use of tear gas on peaceful demonstrators in Washington, D.C. this week to clear a path for a presidential photo-op.

May reiterated her party’s position that it is time for the Liberal government to suspend Canada’s Safe Third Country agreement with the U.S.

“It’s clear that if you’re Muslim, if you’re Black, if you’re Latina, if you’re Indigenous, the United States is not a safe country,” she said.

According to the 2004 pact, Canada and the U.S. recognize each other as safe places for refugee claimants to seek protection. Both countries reject most asylum claims made at land border crossings on the basis that people should instead seek refuge in the first country they arrive in.

However, in what has been called a loophole, the Safe Third Country agreement only applies at official border points. Thousands of people have crossed into Canada from the U.S. irregularly over several years in order to make claims.

In a move that outraged refugee advocates, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in March that asylum seekers who try to come into Canada irregularly from the U.S. would be sent back as part of a “reciprocal” arrangement between the countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Canada has closed the border to non-essential U.S. visitors until at least June 21.

At the time, May also blasted the government for closing the border to those seeking refuge during the pandemic. “If border officials are allowed to turn away asylum seekers at unauthorized points of entry, we might as well just build a wall across the entire country. Whatever happened to our ‘welcoming’ country?” she said in a press release.

May said Wednesday that as long as those seeking asylum adhere to Canada’s COVID-19 safety protocols, they shouldn’t be turned away.

“We’ve been making this point since Trump came to office with his anti-Muslim ban,” she said, referring to the president’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations. “That you couldn’t be a Muslim in the United States and feel safe. It was no longer a Safe Third Country.”

But May said she would not criticize Trudeau or Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland for refusing to call out Trump by name over the unrest south of the border.
It’s clear that if you’re Muslim, if you’re Black, if you’re Latina, if you’re Indigenous, the United States is not a safe country.Green MP Elizabeth May


The prime minister stood silent for 21 seconds Tuesday when asked by a reporter to weigh in on Trump’s behaviour. When he eventually answered, Trudeau did not reference the U.S. president by name, but said Canadians were watching what is happening in the U.S. with “horror and consternation.”

May said she wants to give Trudeau and Freeland “the space to navigate” how they deal with the Trump White House, saying they have “different jobs” and roles than she does.

“I just knew I could not stay silent as the president of the United States urged violence and in coded language has been giving… oxygen, for years now, to white supremacists,” she said.

The Green parliamentary leader is also calling for an inquiry to determine to what extent white supremacist forces could be infiltrating police and the military in Canada.

“This is a very dangerous situation. And I do think those of us in other countries should speak out,” she said. “But I won’t criticize the prime minister or the deputy prime minister because the nature of what they have to do in negotiating keeping the border closed for safety, right now, for COVID-19.”
Singh: PM must speak out on Trump’s actions

In contrast, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters in Ottawa Wednesday that Trudeau needs to speak out forcefully against Trump. Canada cannot be a “passive bystander” as Trump inflames hatred and fuels racism, he said.

“He is acting in a way which is going to put people’s lives at risk,” Singh said of the president. “And it is wrong and it needs to be called out.

“It’s difficult to stand up to bullies. It’s difficult to call out hate. It’s hard to do but it must be done. And it takes courage and everyone has to do their part.”

The NDP leader, who a day earlier in the House of Commons suggested Trudeau was more interested in “pretty words” than concrete action on racial injustice, said the Liberal government should also move to end racially motivated policing tactics and address the over-representation of visible minorities and Indigenous people in prisons

Singh, the first racialized leader of a major federal party and a politician who has been open about the bigotry he has faced as a turbaned Sikh, recounted how some bystanders would say nothing when he was bullied as a child.

“Silence didn’t stop the blows that I felt. Silence didn’t stop the painful words,” he said.

Trudeau should condemn Trump’s conduct clearly, even if it complicates Canada-U.S. relations, he suggested.

“There are times where we have to be strategic, and there are times where we just have to stand up for what is right,” he said. “And this is one of those times where we have to stand up for what is right.”

With files from The Canadian Press

Trudeau Took A Long Pause Before Answering Question About Trump’s Military Action

He was careful to not mention the U.S. president by name.

By Ryan Maloney
Zi-Ann Lum

06/02/2020

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood silent for more than 20 seconds at his Ottawa press briefing Tuesday after he was asked to comment on Donald Trump’s threat to deploy the military against anti-Black racism protesters.

When he finally answered, Trudeau was careful not to reference the U.S. president by name. Instead, he focused on racial injustice in Canada.

The question came one day after the National Guard used tear gas on peaceful demonstrators in Washington, D.C. to clear a path for a Trump photo-op. Demonstrations and acts of violence have erupted across the U.S. since last week’s police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, in Minneapolis. Floyd died after a white police officer pinned him to the ground with a knee on his neck for eight minutes.

CBC News reporter Tom Parry noted Trudeau’s past reluctance to weigh in on Trump’s words and actions. “If you don’t want to comment, what message do you think you’re sending?” Parry asked.

After the lengthy delay that played out like a technical glitch on TV, Trudeau said Canadians are watching what is happening in the U.S. with “horror and consternation.”
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI VIA GETTY IMAGESU.S. President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John's Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. on June 1, 2020.
“It is a time to pull people together, but it is a time to listen. It is a time to learn what injustices continue, despite progress, over years and decades,” he said.

“But it is a time for us as Canadians to recognize that we too have our challenges, that Black Canadians and racialized Canadians face discrimination as a lived reality every single day.”

Echoing sentiments he’s already expressed publicly, Trudeau said there is systemic discrimination in this country because people of colour are treated differently than other Canadians.

“It is something that many of us don’t see but it is something that is a lived reality for racialized Canadians,” he said. “We need to see that, not just as a government and take action, but we need to see that as Canadians.”

Pressed again on why he is so averse to comment directly on Trump’s actions, Trudeau said his job is to stand up for Canadians, their values and interests.
ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGES

A protestor is being arrested by Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police officers during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer last week.

“That is what I have done from the very beginning, that is what I will continue to do,” he said. “Canadians need a government that will be there for them, that will support them, and that will move us forward in the right direction. And I will do that.”

Another reporter pressed Trudeau on a 2017 UN report on anti-Black racism in Canada that recommended the federal government apologize for the country’s history of slavery and offer reparations.

The prime minister would not say if his government will issue a formal apology. Instead, Trudeau said his government has worked “very, very closely” with the Black community to respond to its priorities. The NDP is currently pushing the government to collect more race-based data to help shape policy decisions, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

“What we are seeing in the United States and what Canadians are speaking about here in Canada underlines the fact that we need to act,” he said.
Party leaders make statements saying racism is real in Canada

Trudeau and other federal leaders later spoke in the House of Commons Tuesday about Canada’s own issues with racial discrimination. The prime minister said horrific reports of police violence against Black men and women in the U.S. are not “elsewhere problems.”

“As a country, we are not concerned bystanders simply watching what is happening next door. We are part of it,” he said.

Trudeau also addressed his own past incidents of blackface, calling them “serious” mistakes.

“We need to be allies in the fight against discrimination. We need to listen, we need to learn, and we need to work hard to fix, to figure out how we can be part of the solution on fixing things.”

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said racism isn’t a problem exclusive to the U.S. He said he hopes the fallout from Floyd’s death has sparked conversations about racism.

Canada has had its own “dark episodes” in the past, Scheer said, noting a “troubling spike” in the number of racist anti-Asian incidents during the pandemic.

“In a peaceful and free country like Canada, there’s absolutely no room for intolerance, racism and extremism of any kind.” The words were nearly identical to a campaign-style speech he delivered last year.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism is real, and members of those communities have been killed at the hands of police in Canada. He referenced the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto last week as a latest example. The woman’s family has questioned the role of officers in her death after she fell from a 24th-floor balcony with police on the scene.
GRAHAM HUGHES/CP

A anti-police brutality protester hold a sign during a demonstration calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal on May 31, 2020.

“How many more people need to die before there is action? How many more speeches need to be made, how many more protests need to happen before something is done.”

Singh said people are done with “pretty speeches from people in power that could do something about it right now if they wanted to.” He added that he doesn’t have the answers and that “we’re going to have to come up with those solutions together.”
Bloc leader, Quebec premier deny systemic racism exists

Earlier, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told reporters in Ottawa he doesn’t believe the Canadian government, the Quebec government, or cities in his province are racist in “any way shape or form.”

Looking back at history, some can argue that the Canadian government has been racist, he said. The Bloc leader urged citizens and elected officials to feel “sorrow and sincere friendship toward the Black people of all North America.”

Blanchet urged people to express sadness “peacefully” over Floyd’s death rather than “feeding the fire,” referencing protests against police brutality organized around the world.
GRAHAM HUGHES/CP

Protesters run from police during a demonstration calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal on May 31, 2020.

His comments pick up on Quebec Premier François Legault’s comments Monday, claiming systemic racism doesn’t exist in his province.

Legault said he found the nature of Floyd’s death “shocking,” and expressed solidarity with protesters who took to the streets of Montreal over the week.

But he downplayed the severity of racism in Quebec, despite his government’s push to pass a discriminatory law last year to ban visible religious symbols that disproportionately affects women from minority groups.

Although there are racist incidents in the province, Legault said, the level of discrimination at home isn’t comparable to what happens in the U.S.

“I think there is some discrimination in Quebec, but there’s no systemic discrimination. There’s no system in Quebec of discrimination,” he said. “And it’s a very, very small minority of the people that are doing some discrimination.”

Defunding The Police Will Save Black And Indigenous Lives In Canada

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we need to have this conversation.

• By Sandy Hudson, Special To HuffPost

GRAHAM HUGHES/CANADIAN PRESS

Police push back protesters during a demonstration on May 31, 2020 calling for justice in the death of George Floyd and victims of police brutality in Montreal.

As I write, demonstrations are raging across North America in protest of continued police violence against Black people. The police killings of Black people have sparked resistance uprisings, from Whitehorse to Miami and seemingly everywhere in between.

Demonstrators are calling for justice for Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, who fell to her death while police were in her apartment, D’Andre Campbell in Brampton, Ont., George Floyd in Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and countless others who have faced anti-Black police brutality.

If we truly want to effect change that could stop police killings of Black people, we must have a conversation about defunding the police.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/DARRYL DYCK

Thousands of people gather for a peaceful demonstration in support of George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet and protest against racism, injustice and police brutality, in Vancouver on May 31, 2020.

Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, “What about violent crime?”

I hear you. And I want you to consider this simple fact: police do not prevent violence. What we need in the event of violent crime is a service that will effectively respond to it, stop it from happening if it is ongoing, and investigate the circumstances surrounding it.

This is a conversation about safety, and the mechanism through which we as a society will provide safety for one another. 

Policing is ill-equipped to suit these needs.

When victims are not the right kinds of victims, police have utterly failed. When the queer community in Toronto told police there was a serial killer targeting racialized queer men in the Church Street village, the police openly denied there was a serial killer and did not take the threat seriously. This allowed serial killer Bruce MacArthur to get away with murdering at least eight men over at least seven years.

In British Columbia, police failed to apprehend serial killer Robert Pickton for over 20 years,  and this failure meant that Pickton was able to murder 49 women. The majority of these women were Indigenous, and police routinely refuse to take the disappearance of Indigenous women seriously. When Toronto police attended to the suspicious death of Black trans woman Sumaya Dalmar in 2015, they closed the investigation without ruling it a homicide or releasing a cause of death after social media outcry.

Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety.

Black communities interact with police regularly because we live in neighbourhoods police target. We are experts in the ways that police can brutalize and inflict violence upon us. Their presence is no assurance of safety in Black communities. This is often true for Indigenous communities and communities living in poverty as well.

There are other communities who do not interact with police regularly. Wealthier, non-Black, non-Indigenous, privileged communities tend to feel safe because they have a rarely used option to call the police when they feel their safety is threatened. But, they are generally not interacting with police; their communities are not policed in the same way, and they are not targeted for criminalization.

Alternatives to policing

Instead of relying on police, we could rely on well-trained social workers, sociologists, forensic scientists, doctors, researchers and other well-trained individuals to fulfill our needs when violent crimes take place. In the event that intervention is required while a violent crime is ongoing, a service that provides expert specialized rapid response does not need to be connected to an institution of policing that fails in every other respect. Such a specific tactical service does not require the billions of dollars we waste in ineffective policing from year to year.

Defunding the police can free up funding that we can reinvest in services that provide real safety for both kinds of communities. The communities that are constantly exposed to police violence should not be deprived of effective safety and security services simply because more privileged communities feel safer when calling the police is an option.

We can rethink the way that we create safety in our communities by creating alternative services that truly create safety and security for everyone. Black Lives Matter - Toronto has been advocating for this since our inception, alongside our global counterparts and other Black justice organizations.

Right now, the only emergency option available for most people who are experiencing mental distress is to call 911. Both D’Andre Campbell and Regis Korchinski-Paquet died while the police were attending to calls about their mental distress.

Couldn’t we create a new emergency service that connects us with unarmed, mental health emergency service workers specifically trained to provide the health and social care required in crisis situations? It’s happening already, with front-line programs active and working in conjunction with police in parts of the U.K. and in states such as Oregon, where the CAHOOTS program has been active since 1989.  

STEVE RUSSELL VIA GETTY IMAGES

Activists and protesters rally in front of Toronto police headquarters on May 30, 2020 after the death of 29-year-old Regis Korchinski-Paquet.

We can also decriminalize activities that are currently against the law, and reinvest the money we save on unnecessary policing and put it into programs supporting the security of communities who need it. The decriminalization of cannabis and our response to the opioid crisis show how a public-health approach to drug use is more effective than policing to support people who need help.

As another example, some public transportation systems use police to ensure that each passenger pays their fare. If we defund the police, we could reinvest our savings to help make public transit free. Fare evasion could no longer be a crime, and the policing of passengers would be unnecessary.

The minor services police provide — adherence to bylaw infractions, traffic services, attending to noise complaints — can be enforced by civilian services. In Ontario in 2015, Marc Ekamba-Boekwa was shot at 19 times and killed by Peel police after a noise complaint was made in his Mississauga, Ont. public-housing complex. Do we really need police attending to noise complaints with lethal force?

The very purpose of the police has always been antithetical to the safety of Black and Indigenous people.

In several large cities across Canada, policing accounts for some of the largest municipal budget expenditures. Let’s defund the police and create budgets that truly reflect our priorities. Perhaps then we could fund guaranteed access to housing, increased adult support for children in schools, and other services that create true safety and security.

Each year, police budgets generally increase. But rather than increased safety, all we see is increased militarization and criminalization. Police have been caught infringing on our privacy rights by implementing surveillance techniques that can access our smartphones. They have used the funding they receive to purchase stealth emergency vehicles, and to purchase increasingly militarized devices to harm civilians, including assault-style weaponry and sound cannons in the case of the Toronto Police Service.

Why do we need these services? The police have utterly failed to deliver on their evergreen promise to create safety by being “tough on crime.”

But they have continued their original purpose of harming us. The institution of modern policing was created in France as a mechanism to protect the property of wealthy men — including enslaved people. The police acted as slave catchers to kidnap Black people who had liberated themselves from slaveowners.

In Canada, this mandate was expanded when the RCMP was created in 1873 to “free up land” of Indigenous people to make way for white settlement. 

Anger Over Edmonton Eskimos' Name Reignites After Black Lives Matter Posts

The team has long been criticized over its insensitive name.

AS A LONG TIME FAN, I AGREE, MAYBE CALL YOURSELVES GREEN N GOLD AFTER ALL YOU ORIGINATED OUT OF THE U OF A

AND BESIDES OTTAWA IS A FLANNEL TEAM CALLED THE RED BLACKS.

FINALLY THIS SHOULD NOT BE TOO HARD TO UNDERSTAND SINCE THE EE, ANOTHER POSSIBLE NAME, HIRED THE FIRST BLACK QUARTERBACK TO PLAY PRO FOOTBALL, WARREN MOON, WHOM THE RACIST NFL REJECTED.

By Al Donato 06/03/2020 HUFF POST

THE CANADIAN PRESS Quarterback Trevor Harris, seen here at a 2019 game with the Hamilton Tiger Cats, is part of the Edmonton-based Canadian Football League (CFL) team that's been long-criticized over its insensitive name.


Edmonton’s professional football team is getting ridiculed for claiming to support Black Lives Matter, while still going by a name offensive to Inuit people.

The CFL’s Edmonton Eskimos are among many sports teams who lit up their social media accounts with statements of solidarity with Black communities protesting police brutality. But they’re also among the same teams with names based on Indigenous stereotypes, bringing criticism of poor allyship.

“We seek to understand what it must feel like to live in fear going birding, jogging, or even relaxing in the comfort of your home,” the first statement from the Edmonton team starts, referencing recent examples of Black Americans being intimidated or murdered, while going about their daily lives. It concludes with an expression of solidarity: “We stand with those who are outraged, who are hurt and who hope for a better tomorrow.”

The post was followed by a black square and the hashtag ”#blackouttuesday,” a well-intentioned campaign to support Black musicians that’s been criticized for taking space away from useful resources.

Anger over the statement was swift and reignited years-long calls for a name change, with Canadian singer and actor Jann Arden joining the fray.

Change your name. That’s a start. I made a terrible mistake a few years ago- using this derogatory word in what I thought was a harmless, non offinsive way- I WAS WRONG. Be better. https://t.co/1Om2RqSXBQ— jann arden (@jannarden) June 1, 2020

Wow the audacity to put out a statement like this. Change your name!!!!! #edmontoneskimos https://t.co/62P8K4aLYh— Nadine Pinto (@nadine_pinto) June 1, 2020

The hypocrisy would be hilarious if it wasn’t so harmful and dangerous. Change your name. There is no excuse.— mood-eye maddy 👀 (@abermaddy) May 31, 2020

Change your name. The name undervalues people. People feel used. People feel persecuted. People relive it on social media like this post.

Your very name does this every. single. day.— Andrea K (@andreabridgeway) June 1, 2020

Indigenous notables added nuance to the conversation, including Nunavut NDP MP Mumilaaq Qaqqaq and Inuk singer Tanya Tagaq.

The injustices for individuals that are racialized is horrible. I stand with our black friends across the boarder. If you really “seek to understand” start by changing your team name. Stop feeding into stereotypes and offensive names. We are NOT a mascot. - Nunavut’s Inuk MP— Mumilaaq (@MumilaaqQaqqaq) June 1, 2020

In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had weighed in on this longstanding issue at a press conference, when he said that talks about a name change were needed on a local level.

“This is a discussion and a reflection that the city of Edmonton certainly needs to undertake,” he said. “Reconciliation is not just about Indigenous people and the government. It’s about all of us as Canadians, non-Indigenous as well.”

The Edmonton team decided not to change their name earlier this year after consulting Inuit leaders, the Toronto Star reported. But, as a Nunatsiaq News op-ed by Inuk politician Natan Obed highlighted, the lack of consensus within communities doesn’t erase the hurt felt by Inuit people who see the name as derogatory.
THEY ARE A COMMUNITY OWNED TEAM BUT THE FANS AND COMMUNITY WERE NOT CONSULTED, THE FAMILY COMPACT THAT RUNS THE ESKIMOS ORG

Other sports teams that use Indigenous caricatures have faced similar backlash this week. U.S. congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez lambasted the Washington NFL team for their attempt at racial sensitivity.



Want to really stand for racial justice? Change your name. https://t.co/XTlIJrfNx4— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 2, 2020


Posts by the baseball teams in Atlanta, Cleveland and Kansas City have resulted in similar feedback, during this time of turmoil over anti-Black injustice.



The Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves, Edmonton Eskimos, Chicago Blackhawks, and Kansas City Chiefs can all fuck right off with their performative blackouts unless they're going to change their names and racist imagery. #BlackOutTuesday— جيل تيلي (@jilly_tilley) June 3, 2020

Black Organizations And Anti-Racist Groups Canadians Can Support Now
How you can help fight anti-Black racism and police brutality here in Canada too.
By
Melanie Woods
06/01/2020   HUFFPOST

GRAHAM HUGHES/THE CANADIAN PRESS

People hold up signs during a demonstration where they called for justice for George Floyd and all victims of police brutality in Montreal on May 31, 2020.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, demonstrations have taken place around the world in response to police brutality and systemic anti-Black racism in the United States.

This weekend saw a wave of police brutality in response to protests and demonstrations following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck, suffocating him, according to an independent autopsy report. Floyd’s death follows a slew of cases of Black people killed by police, including Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and also of Ahmaud Arbery, where one of the white men charged is a former police officer.

For Canadians, it can often feel overwhelming to watch what’s happening in the U.S. from afar. But anti-Black police violence and discrimination happens here too.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs compiled police data in the province from 2008 to 2017 and found that, despite First Nations people making up two per cent of the population, they accounted for 15 per cent of police stops. And while Black people make up just one per cent of the population in the province, they accounted for five per cent of police stops.

Black people made up only 8.8 per cent of Toronto’s population in 2016, a 2018 report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission found they were involved in seven out of 10 cases of fatal shootings by police between 2013 and 2017.

Last week, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Black woman, died under mysterious circumstances; police were in her Toronto home when she fell to her death from the balcony of her 24th floor apartment. Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, which examines death, serious injury or allegations of sexual assault involving police, is investigating the case.

HUFFPOST CANADA

There are specific organizations or resources Canadians can engage with closer to home. Because Canada has a racism and police brutality problem too, whether we’re good at acknowledging it or not.

Black Lives Matter regional chapters

Black Lives Matter was originally created in the U.S. by Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi and Alicia Garza as a call to action for Black people after the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. It’s grown into an international movement, with chapters around the world working to oppose anti-Black racism and police brutality in their local communities.

Here are links to some regional chapters of Black Lives Matter across Canada. If you’re interested in contributing money, many chapters accept donations, while others are looking for volunteers or support in other ways.

Black Lives Matter Toronto: Canada’s largest BLM chapter. In their own words, they aim “to forge critical connections and to work in solidarity with black communities, black-centric networks, solidarity movements, and allies in order to to dismantle all forms of state-sanctioned oppression, violence, and brutality committed against African, Caribbean, and Black cis, queer, trans, and disabled populations in Toronto.”

Black Lives Matter Vancouver: The Vancouver chapter of BLM, that works “to draw attention to our largely invisibilized communities, celebrate people of colour and work in solidarity with other Black Lives Matter chapters across North America.”

BLM Vancouver did not organize Vancouver’s protest Sunday night, which saw over 3,500 people come out. However, they gave their blessing alongside information to keep it safe for everyone.

Video Shows Man Struck To The Ground By RCMP Vehicle In Nunavut

WHITE COPS ARE RACISTS, EVERYWHERE
An officer involved is being removed from the community, police say.

The Canadian Press  06/03/2020 

VIDEO AT END

CAPE DORSET, Nunavut — Nunavut RCMP say a Mountie is under investigation after a video surfaced that appears to show an officer knocking over a man with the open door of a police pickup truck.

Police say Chief Supt. Amanda Jones, commanding officer of V Division, became aware of the video after it was posted on social media.

The video from Monday night shows a police vehicle slowly approaching a man staggering across a street. The man is hit by the driver’s open door before the driver and three other Mounties struggle with him on the ground.

Police say after watching the video that was shot by a member of the community, Jones ordered an independent external statutory investigation and an internal investigation into the actions of the officer. 

APTN NEWS/YOUTUBEA screenshot from a video posted on YouTube shows a Nunavut RCMP vehicle slowly approaching a man before he is struck by a door.


RCMP say it raises concerns about how the Mountie from the Kinngait detachment, formerly known as Cape Dorset, made the arrest.

Police say the officer is to be removed from the community located on the southern tip of Baffin Island during the investigation.

“The RCMP takes the conduct of our officers seriously and want to assure the public we have confidence in the process of the external investigation to determine the circumstances of the event and whether criminal charges should be sworn against the officer,” Cpl. Jamie Savikataaq, an RCMP spokesman, said in a release Tuesday.

“As the matter is now subject of an external criminal investigation and an internal conduct investigation, we cannot comment any further at this time.”