Did the RCMP's Indigenous Policing policy derail the Kamloops investigation?
Woke Watch Canada is a reader-supported publication. Please consider becoming a paying subscriber or making a one-time or recurring donation to show your support.
By Nina Green
Did the RCMP's Indigenous Policing policy derail the Kamloops investigation?
Two RCMP emails obtained through Access to Information suggest that it did.
The emails are dated 26 April 2023.
The first is from Veronica at BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey to Kamloops RCMP Superintendent Jeff Pelley. Pelley was second in command in Kamloops (having been on the job only a month) when 'the Tk'emlúps Rural RCMP Detachment was contacted on May 26 [2021] by the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc community leaders regarding a discovery made on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School' (see attachments). Pelley took over from Syd Lecky as Superintendent in October 2022, and was thus in charge of the Kamloops investigation from that date forward in co-ordination with BC RCMP headquarters in Surrey.
The subject header of Veronica's email to Superintendent Pelley reads:
RE: 23-000561 Nixon for appropriate action 2023-04-26
Veronica writes:
Good afternoon Sir,
As you'll see below, the Commissioner's Office received a reach in from a member of the community in Ontario with respect to the Kamloops file. I've consulted with IPS and Comms and we've settled on the following messaging:
Thank you for your email to the Commissioner of the RCMP. The RCMP fully respects and acknowledges that the Tk'emlúps te Secwepemc remains the lead with respect to the discovery, investigation and path forward at the site near
Kamloops. Following the lead of the community, the involvement and consultation with multiple communities who have been affected is ongoing to ensure a respectful process is followed.We appreciate you raising your perspective and we will bring that forward to the responsible parties.
Would you be able to provide any insights? Also this is for your SA [=Situational Awareness] as you continue to engage the involved parties.
Once I have your confirmation I'll reach back to the Commissioner's office and advise it's their decision as to if they want to deliver the messaging or if we should send it out from the Command Proxy here.
Thanks and respectfully,
Veronica
The gist of Veronica's email is that RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, appointed as interim Commissioner a month earlier on 17 March 2023, had received an inquiry about the Kamloops investigation from someone in Ontario. The person making the inquiry in Ontario was possibly surnamed Nixon; however the original inquiry from Ontario is unfortunately not included in the file obtained through Access to Information.
Veronica advises Superintendent Pelley that she has consulted with Indigenous Policing Services and with Communications, i.e. with Ben Smith, Dawn Roberts and Dee Stewart, and 'messaging' has been agreed on. The key sentences - essentially being put into the mouth of RCMP Commissioner Duheme since the original inquiry in Ontario was addressed to him - are that the Kamloops Band is still fully in charge of the RCMP investigation two years after the Band's claim on 27 May 2021 that it had discovered 'the remains of 215 children' based on ground penetrating radar (GPR) work initiated by Ted Gottfriedson Jr and Diena Jules (see attached transcript).
Veronica quotes the agreed-upon messaging as follows:
The RCMP fully respects and acknowledges that the Tk'emlúps te Secwepemc remains the lead with respect to the discovery, investigation and path forward at the site near Kamloops. Following the lead of the community, the involvement and consultation with multiple communities who have been affected is ongoing to ensure a respectful process is followed.
In other words, two years after the Kamloops Band's false claim that it had discovered 'the remains of 215 children', the Band was, and had been from the outset, fully in charge of the RCMP investigation into that false claim.
In his reply, Superintendent Pelley not only confirmed that the Band was in charge of the RCMP investigation, but added that the investigation could not go forward because, although two years had passed, the Kamloops Band was still deciding whether it would allow an RCMP investigation, and the RCMP was 'respecting' the Band's right to determine whether the RCMP should investigate. Pelley wrote:
Good Afternoon Veronica,
I acknowledge the response and agree, we will continue to engage with Tk'emlups Chief and Council. S/Sgt Wallace and I will follow up with Chief and Council in a future meeting, as the last engagement indicated they were still assessing with the grassroots families to determine if the community wishes to move ahead with an investigation and we are respecting that process as it community lead. This was still being decided upon within the Community and Leadership, we currently are not engaged in an active investigation.
Regards,
Jeff
Superintendent Pelley's reply states that in 2023 the Kamloops RCMP still fully intended to follow the Kamloops Band's lead, whatever that lead might be, but was still not involved in an active investigation because the Band hadn't decided whether it would allow an RCMP investigation.
Did the RCMP's Indigenous Policing policy, which 'focuses on ensuring and providing a culturally competent policing service' derail an RCMP investigation into whether the Kamloops Band's claim to have found 'the remains of 215 children' was true? Canada needed an answer to the question of what was actually 'discovered' by ground penetrating radar (GPR) in the Kamloops Band's Heritage Park. Canadians didn't get an answer because the RCMP took the position that its Indigenous Policing policy required it to defer an investigation until the Kamloops Band gave permission for an RCMP investigation, and by 2023, the Kamloops Band had already stalled the RCMP for two long years.
It has now been four years, and the Kamloops Band has still not decided to give the RCMP permission to investigate.
It's one thing for the Kamloops Band to take four years to decide whether it wants to excavate in its Heritage Park to see what ground penetrating radar (GPR) really found on the long weekend in May 2021. It's quite another thing for the Kamloops Band to stall an RCMP investigation for four years, and raises serious questions about the detrimental effects of the RCMP's Indigenous Policing policy.
This is particularly the case since Dee Stewart, the RCMP Officer in Charge of Indigenous Policing in BC at the time, and one of the persons consulted by Veronica to frame the messaging to be delivered by the RCMP Commissioner, is (according to her biography filed as an exhibit at the MMIWG inquiry in 2018) the daughter of a member of the Kamloops Band, an obvious conflict of interest (see attachment).
Canada needs an answer to the question of what the Kamloops Band actually found in its Heritage Park on the long weekend in May 2021. It is clear that there are no children's bodies in the Heritage Park. Not a single Indian residential school student has been verifiably reported missing anywhere in Canada. If there are no missing children, there cannot be any 'remains' of missing children in the Kamloops Band's Heritage Park. So if GPR didn't find human remains (which GPR is incapable of finding in any event), then what did GPR actually find? Likely the remains of the 2000 linear feet of septic field trenches installed in 1924 to dispose of the Kamloops Indian Residential School's sewage.
The RCMP Commissioner should direct an immediate investigation into what GPR actually found in the Kamloops Band's Heritage Park.
An RCMP investigation is four years overdue.
Thanks for reading. For more from this author, read Was having to take a routine weekly shower the group sexual abuse Phil Fontaine and his Grade 3 classmates endured at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential School?
Follow Woke Watch Canada on X - @WokeWatchCanada
Or, by contributing to our Donor Box:
"The RCMP Commissioner should direct an immediate investigation into what GPR actually found in the Kamloops Band's Heritage Park. An RCMP investigation is four years overdue."
No truer words were ever written. The "discovery" became a lie and then a coverup.
Since when does the RCMP require permission to investigate an alleged crime. Giving the band the right to conduct their own investigation is both unprecedented and illegal. Like the 1924 septic tank tile bed this embarrassing debacle is full of sh_t. This so called indigenous policing policy is just a glad hand name for obstruction of justice. Sam Steele would surely be rolling in his grave to see what has happened to the once proud force to which he was a founding member. In fairness to the RCMP this mendacious subterfuge has its roots in the highest political office of the country. Let's not forget that our drama queen PM, who appointed the RCMP Commissioner at the time was a fierce advocate of indigenous favoritism and bending the law to recognize and respect indigenous knowing. So here we are four years later stuck in the political doldrums with absolutely no wind in our sails.
Thanks for a very well written and important article.