Micmac reserves getting own police force

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Five Micmac reserves in the Cape Breton area are getting their own Native police force, a first for the Atlantic provinces.

In a ceremony some Natives would have thought to be an impossible dream only a few years ago, leaders of the five bands, Federal Solicitor General Herb Gray and Nova Scotia Premier John Savage signed an agreement announcing the new police force July 12 on the Eskasoni reserve.

Gray presented the agreement as a new step in relations between Aboriginals and police forces, saying the new force would "have a real impact" and that for once, the police force would be one that "shares your heritage". Premier Savage said it was necessary for people to realize that "Native self-government is necessary" and self-policing was one step toward that.

The police force will cover the Eskasoni, Membertou, Chapel Island, Whycocomah and Wagmatcook reserves, where about 4,500 people live. Fifteen officers, nine of whom are new graduates of the RCMP's training program in Regina, will make up the police force. The band councils haven't decided where the headquarters of the force will be.

Eskasoni band chief Allison Bernard said the Native police force makes a lot of sense.

"We've always been treated differently by non-Native police," said Bernard. "Having officers who are fluent in Micmac, who grew up here, will make all the difference. It's a move for common sense, for officers who know the people because this is where they're from."

The spark for the creation of the new force came from the report of the Royal Commission investigating the case of Donald Marshall, Jr., a Micmac who was wrongly imprisoned for almost 15 years. That report found all aspects of the police system were full of faults in dealing with Natives, all the way from policing to judicial decisions.

After the report was published in 1989, Native self-policing became a hot topic and government responded. The band councils and the provincial and federal governments spent four years negotiating the specifics of the new police force. Originally, the bands suggested a force of 22 offices, but the number was gradually whittled down in the face of budget restrictions

"We've made a lot of headway," said Chief Bernard. "Even though we've had to give up a little, we've got to start somewhere."

The idea of Aboriginal self-policing seems to have caught on with government over the last few years, thanks to the Constitutional debate. According to a 1992 report by the federal department of the Solicitor General on the state of Aboriginal policing, it's common for Aboriginal police officers to police Aboriginal populations in Canada. In Ontario, more than 150 Aboriginal communities have had Native officers since 1975, and the Eskasoni band formed a seven-member police force of its own to help with the community's "high level of violent crime."

But across the country, very few Aboriginal communities manage their police on their own, without co-ordinating through another police force.

Among them are the communities of Hobbema, Alberta, and Whitehorse, Yukon. Now, the Cape Breton bands will do the same. The Cape Breton force will go into action around the beginning of December.

Bernard said Premier Savage seems to be committed to even more improvements in how the justice systems deal with Natives.

"He addressed our general assembly last fall," said Bernard, "and said that his main priority was changing things for the Natives. It was the first time I'd heard a premier say the things he did to an Aboriginal meeting."