Following 10 years of advocacy, the Lower Kootenay Band (LKB) and the RCMP have entered into an Indigenous police services agreement to better serve the needs of the community.
The agreement will provide a higher and more responsive level of service.
Nasukin Jason Louie has been a persistent advocate for culturally safe, on-site policing for over 10 years and looks forward to an increased community policing presence.
“It’s often been a joke that pizza can get here quicker than the police," he said. "With this agreement, we look to change that.”
Const. Dave Bickle, the newly appointed Indigenous police services officer, is no stranger to the community. He has been serving the Creston Valley for the past six years, participated in numerous LKB community events, and is pleased to be of service to LKB.
Bickle said the new post is fantastic and looks forward to spending more time in the community and meeting new people.
LKB recognizes the relationship between First Nations and the RCMP has many dark chapters.
Historically, part of the reason the RCMP formed was to deal with the “Indian Problem” by controlling Indigenous populations. In the 1870s, First Nations were increasingly seen as a barrier to the government's plans for westward expansion with settlers. Since then, RCMP officers have enforced confinement on reserves, taken runaways back to residential schools, scooped children from their families and schools in the 1960s, and been involved with persistent issues with missing and murdered Indigenous women.
And many of these harrowing accounts didn't happen all that long ago. "Starlight tours" were allegedly responsible for the deaths of Indigenous men in Saskatchewan in the 1990s and early 2000s. RCMP officers were said to have picked up individuals at night and dropped them outside of city limits in remote areas to walk back in freezing temperatures. No criminal convictions have been made against the RCMP in these cases, despite the public outcry.
“It is better today," said Nasukin Louie. "We can’t change the past. We can change the future.”
Const. Bickle’s cruiser has already been in action on the highway to ensure speed limits on the reserve are respected. He has also been walking and reviewing maps of the 6,000 acres of reserve land.
“We have been dealing with poachers, trespassers, and illegal activity," said Nasukin Louie. "Another good reason to know the land is to be familiar with the hunting grounds so if someone didn’t come back from a hunt, he would know where to look.”
LKB invites community members to celebrate the new policing agreement and meet Const. Bickle on Monday, March 3 at the Wilfred Jacobs Building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“We are glad to see Const. Bickle regularly in our community to move past the piecemeal and inadequate relations we have had with the RCMP," said Nasukin Louie. "I encourage all of our members to come out to lunch, meet Const. Bickle, and provide their input towards this new agreement."
