Plan for Indigenous officers in Val-d'Or highlights police recruitment challenges

The Quebec provincial policeplan to bring more Indigenous officers to Val-d'Or in thewake of police abuse allegationsin that communityis being met with skepticism by some Indigenous leaders highlightingthe recruitment challenges facing police.

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The new station willbe devoted to "community policing" and will be staffed by a combination of SretduQubec(SQ) officers and officers from Indigenous police forces.

Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, said there's already a shortage of Indigenous police officers working onFirst Nations reserves, so it will be difficult to fill new positions.

"If there's no extra funding coming from somewhere, then definitely the proposal is going to fall short," he told CBC Radio'sDaybreak.

Financial help for training

The Quebec government took a step in that direction last week, making changesaimed at encouraging more Indigenous youth and visible minoritiesto work as police officers.

Higher EducationMinisterHlne David committed to eliminating a $17,500 fee for the 900-hour police training program offered to Indigenous students at theCEGEP vocational collegein Alma, north of Quebec City, a spokesperson confirmed to CBC News.

The program isa fast-track route intothe provincial police academy inNicolet.

Still, problems of perception and a lack of education funding present major hurdles in encouraging moreIndigenous people to join both Quebec and First Nations police forces, experts say.

27 Indigenous officers in SQ

The SQ hadatotal of 27 Indigenous police officers in 2015, one more than a year earlier, according to its latest annual report.

An analysis by CBC earlier this year found minorities woefully under-represented in Quebec police forces, particularly within the SQ.

Between 2007 and March 2015, the SQ hired 735new police officers. Only five of them were from what it calls "cultural communities" visible or ethnic minorities as represented on this pie chart:

Indigenous police forces, which patrol manyFirst Nations communities, are also underfunded and understaffed in Quebec.

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For instance, the band-run police force in the small Algonquincommunity of Lac-Simon, justsouth of Val-d'Or, only has the capacity to patrol during the day. The SQ assists the police force at night and on the weekends.

First Nations forces also have trouble finding trained Indigenous officers. Thierry LeRoux, 26,the officer shot and killed in February whilerespondingto a domestic dispute, was a recent recruit to the Lac-Simon force but was not Aboriginal.

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Shortage of applicants

Pierre Saint-Antoine, director of communications atNicolet's colenationalede police duQubec, acknowledged there's room for improvement when it comes to recruitment.

He stressed, however, that "it's not the responsibility of the Quebec police academy to recruit or to promote [a]career in Aboriginal police services, but we think it's important."

This year, there wasa shortage of applicants for the academy's 15-week program specifically designed for those planning to work in First Nations communities, he said.

In Nicolet'sgeneral program, fewer than one per cent of students are Indigenous.

Representation not'magic bullet'

There are a number of reasons Indigenous peopleare less likely to seek a police career, saidAkwasiOwusu-Bempah,a professor atthe University of Torontowhohas studied the relationship between race and the justice system.

Owusu-Bempahsaid manyIndigenous people have a low regard for the job, based on the experiences of members in their own communities.

He cautioned, as well, that "representation is not the magic bullet."

Even if more Indigenous people join Quebec police officers, the underlying issues contributing to a strained relationship between the community and police,such as higher-than-average poverty rates,still need to be addressed, he said in an interview.

Funding shortage

Dwayne Zachary, chief of the KahnawakeMohawk Peacekeepers, the agency in charge of policing in thatcommunity,said First Nations forces face other recruitment challenges as well, with officers in small communitieshaving to patrol their own relatives and neighbours.

"A lot of people in First Nations communities don't want to go into policing because they are going to be policing their own people," he said.

Zachary, who is also president of the Canada-wideFirst Nations Chiefs of Police Association, said the turmoil inVal-d'Orpoints to the need for more Indigenous police officers.

He said the KahnawakePeacekeepers police service, established in 1979,has benefited from being an integral part of the community.

"We want people to know who we are. We're not just someone who rides around in a patrol car," he said.

• ANALYSIS|Val-d'Oris forcing Quebec to think about big problems