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| NEWS > 31 January 2007 |
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Actions Show Lack Of Ethics
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Still, we are an accommodating society, are we not, and love, being what ... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Winnipeg Free Press - Winnipeg
31 January 2007
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Winnipeg Police Service
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Editorial: Too long, too littl
TWO years ago today a young aboriginal man was shot by a Winnipeg police officer, and yet the circumstance of his death continues to be shrouded in mystery, acrimony and suspicion.
No one -- not the officer who pulled the trigger, the family of Matthew Dumas, nor the broader community -- has been well-served by the system of internal review relied upon to collect evidence and draw conclusions about the shooting. The lack of independent oversight and accountability of police affairs has tainted further the long history of rocky relations between Winnipeg Police Service and the city's aboriginal community.
Mr. Dumas' death was immediately dubbed a racial incident by some aboriginal leaders, who drew their conclusions in the heat of the moment and bereft of fact. Nothing to date has helped clarify understanding or resolve suspicions. The homicide unit's investigation remains a private report, as does a review of it by the Calgary police force. Calgary concluded everything was done by the book, according to Winnipeg Police Chief Jack Ewatski. Now, before a public inquest can be held, an opinion from the Ontario Attorney General's office as to whether charges should be laid must be completed. That review was requested about six months ago.
The police officer and Mr. Dumas' family have waited too long to have the air cleared. An inquest more than two years after the fact will test the memories of all involved. The Southern Chiefs Organization, a political lobby group, is financing the family's civil suit against the police, a sign of how solidly polarized is this affair. Whatever the inquest's result, it may hardly feel like resolution to those intimately invested in hardening versions of what happened, and why on Jan. 31, 2005.
The day police cornered Mr. Dumas as a robbery suspect -- wrongly, as it turned out -- triggered a cascade of events, most tragic of which was the shooting. Sad, too, is that Winnipeg again hears its police accused of racist attitudes that have festered since J.J. Harper was shot in 1988. A judicial inquiry concluded that it is unfair to ask police officers to investigate their colleagues. Justice Minister Dave Chomiak must see the system chosen instead -- having police investigate themselves, subject to a seemingly endless series of secondary reviews of that work -- is inherently hobbled. Regardless of its integrity, the system cannot produce timely results that inspire the community's trust. Mr. Chomiak should establish a system to call in the RCMP immediately upon a police shooting. The conclusions reached must be made public for all to see.
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