Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that systemic racism affects "all institutions" in Canada, including government and the police. "Systemic racism is a problem across the country, in all of our institutions, including our police force," he said in his daily press briefing. "Whatever our admiration and support for the RCMP (federal police), we know we need to do more."
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The day before, the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Brenda Lucki, had questioned the existence of "systemic" racism within her forces, while conceding "unconscious prejudice" among certain officers during from a series of interviews. "As Prime Minister, it is difficult for me to recognize that my government, which tries to be progressive and open and to defend minorities, is guilty of systemic discrimination," assured the head of the Liberal government. "It is difficult to bring about change, to recognize that it is not that the system is broken, but rather that the system is made in an inequitable way for certain groups".
For several weeks, thousands of Canadians have marched across the country in support of the protests in the United States against racism and police violence, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an African-American, at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. Last Friday, Mr. Trudeau himself joined a demonstration in Ottawa, during which he placed a knee on the ground in solidarity with the demonstrators. Canadians must recognize that their institutions "have not always treated racialized people or indigenous people fairly ," he added, vowing to do everything to remedy them. Justin Trudeau notably said he was in favor of wearing on-board cameras by the police.
Canadian Aboriginal organizations, for their part, called for a public and impartial investigation into the death of a young Aboriginal woman who fell under the guns of a police officer last Thursday, and denounced the discrimination suffered by First Nations people.