
RCMP may need to review training involving Indigenous people, B.C. watchdog says
SURREY — British Columbia’s police watchdog says RCMP policy or training may need to change to better respond to calls involving Indigenous people after complaints that police actions were more forceful than necessary.
The assessment comes in a report released this month about the suicide of an Indigenous man in Williams Lake, B.C., who died during a standoff with Mounties in July 2022.
The Independent Investigations Office report says there was no evidence that racism was a factor, but the man’s family and community members raised “significant concerns” about the level of police response and ongoing discrimination by the Williams Lake RCMP.
The report says the case doesn’t meet the bar for a charge assessment but it “raises bigger questions” about how police approached the situation involving an Indigenous person in a mental health crisis.