Trudeau Demands Changes Within The RCMP After Indigenous Assault Allegations

Trudeau is speaking out after assault allegations have surfaced against the RCMP. On Saturday, June 6, Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation spoke out about allegedly being beaten up by RCMP officers during an arrest. Justin Trudeau said, "we need to do more" regarding the story. 

A member of the media called into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's daily press conference and asked how Canadians can be confident that there are systems in place to make sure the police are being policed themselves. 

The reporter also mentioned Chief Adam who had shared photos of a bloodied face and swollen eyes with allegations that local police officers had assaulted him. 

Trudeau said in response, "we have obviously all seen and been deeply alarmed by the pictures that Chief Adam shared. Obviously, Minister Miller has engaged with the Chief directly multiple times over the past days."

"We need to do more. We need to take significant measures to move forward. We brought in an RCMP management board a number of years ago, as we committed to helping civilian oversight over the RCMP," the Prime Minister said. 

Trudeau then acknowledged that there is more to do. He said he also had a conversation about that with Commissioner Lucky on Monday morning. She's the RCMP Commissioner for the whole country. 

The Prime Minister said that he will continue working with Commissioner Lucki and other bodies to ensure that "significant, concrete and rapid measures" are brought forward to address these issues. 

"We have to work together to expedite change within the RCMP. Now we did bring in additional measures in recent years to ensure greater accountability within the RCMP but we know that there is a lot more to be done and we will be working together in the coming days to bring in new measures," said the Prime Minister. 

Global News reported that Chief Adam was leaving a Fort McMurray casino with his family on March 10 when the alleged assault took place. He said his wife had spotted Wood Buffalo RCMP officers eyeing their truck from nearby. 

They were about to drive away when a cop came over and asked them to stop. The officer reportedly reached into the car himself and shut the truck off, according to Global news.

The officer then said that they couldn't drive the car as it had no registration. 

Adam and his wife allegedly exited and entered the vehicle many times as they were talking the situation over with the officers. The situation heated up when one of the cops reportedly grabbed Adam's wife. 

More RCMP vehicles were headed to the area. Adam exited the vehicle again and that's when the assault took place, reported Global News. 

According to CBC News, Chief Adams said that he believes he wouldn't have been subjected to this type of assault if he wasn't a member of a minority group. 

Sue Hudson, the executive director of Alberta's Serious Incident Response Team, told CBC that the branch has launched a formal investigation into the assault. 

Narcity has reached out to Wood Buffalo RCMP for comment and we will update this article when we receive a response.