This House of Commons committee meeting on Indigenous and Northern Affairs studied Indigenous policing and public safety, hearing from Naiomi Metallic, Brennan Merasty, Beverly Fullerton, Dave Lamouche, Andrea Sandmaier, and Mylène Jaccoud.
Naiomi Metallic, a professor at Dalhousie University, argued that the First Nations Policing Program (FNPP) is woefully inadequate, underfunded, and closed to new communities, with only two-thirds of Indigenous peoples having access and a dramatic decline in Indigenous police officers. She called for flexible, community-led solutions beyond the RCMP, including peacekeepers and special constables, and stressed that funding must be based on actual costs with independent oversight, criticizing the federal government for dropping proposed legislation on essential services.
Brennan Merasty and Beverly Fullerton, ministers from Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, described a state of emergency on drugs, gangs, and violence, emphasizing that institutional concepts like incarceration do not work and that Métis communities are caught in jurisdictional and funding gaps. They advocated for a Métis-led community safety officer program and culturally grounded frameworks, asking for federal funding and collaboration to support prevention and healing rather than enforcement.
Dave Lamouche, President of the Metis Settlements General Council, detailed a public safety crisis in Alberta’s eight settlements, citing inconsistent RCMP presence, lack of bylaw enforcement, and high turnover. He recommended a Metis-Settlements-led policing framework with local control, multi-year postings, cultural training, and equitable, sustainable funding, arguing that police presence builds trust and prevents crime.
Andrea Sandmaier, President of the Otipemisiwak Métis Government, stressed that community safety begins with health, housing, and culture, and called for distinctions-based data and sustainable funding for Métis-led safety initiatives. She highlighted the need for cultural competency in policing and justice systems, citing the murder of two Métis hunters as a failure of trust, and urged the Crown to empower Métis governments as partners rather than clients.
Mylène Jaccoud, a professor at Université de Montréal, argued that policing reforms have suffered from institutional dissonance, focusing on underfunding rather than supporting self-determined Indigenous policing models grounded in legal traditions. She recommended mobile response teams pairing police with social workers, such as the Saqijuq project in Nunavik, and funding prevention initiatives like on-the-land programs, noting that many recommendations from past commissions remain unimplemented.
The committee briefly debated and passed a motion to allow up to three associate members per party to receive meeting notices and access the digital binder until January 26, 2026, with the Bloc Québécois supporting it.
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