AMC supports reform measures for the City of Winnipeg police service
June 9, 2020
Treaty One Territory, Manitoba
alexpapineau
Treaty One Territory, Manitoba – The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) continues to voice support for reform measures for the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) in line with what many Winnipeg citizens and organizations have been saying historically and as calls for fundamental police reform are sweeping across Canada, the United States, and the World. WPS Chief Danny Smyth’s recent comments at the meeting of the Winnipeg Police Board, and to the assembled media following his presentation, may also open the doors to the conversation on alternate use of law enforcement resources which may, in turn, reduce First Nation’s incarceration rates and First Nation’s fatalities with police involved shootings in the City of Winnipeg.
Grand Chief Dumas stated, ”the current broad conversation that we are all having on the effects of policing on Indigenous and Black peoples is an opportunity to effect change within our City, to ensure that First Nations are treated humanely and with the same level of respect and dignity by the WPS that is afforded to every other citizen of this City. The AMC has long advocated for extensive and fundamental reform of the enabling legislation from which municipal, provincial and federal police services draw their powers. If this legislative reform means a systematic defunding and reduction of police services to redirect police budgets to health, education and social services organizations such as the Bear Clan, then so be it,” said Grand Chief Dumas.