(Image credit: Williams Lake First Nation via Zoom).

By Aaron Schulze

'No Compassion or Concern'

Indigenous leaders call for inquiry into RCMP response after distressed Williams Lake man takes his own life

Jul 19, 2022 | 12:11 PM

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN) and the Union of BC Indigenous Chiefs (UBCIC) are calling for a public inquiry into the RCMP’s response to a member in distress who died on July 10.

Rojun Alphonse was found dead with what RCMP say appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. Police say they received a complaint in the early hours of July 10 that a man with a weapon was contemplating self-harm.

At a news conference Tuesday morning (July 19), WLFN Chief Willie Sellars says Alphonse’s family members reported their concerns about his mental state and the potential of self-harm to the RCMP. Sellars says what should have been a welfare check resulted in a swarm of ERT officers with automatic weapons, body armour, armed vehicles and tear gas.

“In the midst of this aggressive and violent confrontation by the RCMP, Rojun took his life,” Sellars says. “When is it common practice that an ERT team is deployed to a situation where a person is threatening suicide? If this was a non-Indigenous person, would the result have been the same?”

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Sellars says the situation has shaken his community’s confidence in the justice system.

The widow of Alphonse, June North, spoke at the news conference. She called Alphonse a loving man to her and their four children.

North says she will never call or trust an RCMP officer, in light of how RCMP responded to a call for help. She says their home was gas bombed and their daughter was put in a police vehicle. She claims her daughter wasn’t given a phone call, even though the RCMP had the phone numbers for North and her sister in-law.

“They had no compassion or concern for his mental state, seeing him as a threat when they knew it was a distress call and not a criminal act,” North says. “They asked [her daughter] why she didn’t come out. Why would she come out when there is a full force of cops out there and she’s with her loving, caring dad?”

Chief Sellars raised questions about how the police would have responded if the person was not aboriginal. B.C.’s Grand Chief Stewart Phillip pushed further, describing in his words a bloodlust of officers.

“The stark fact of the matter is the issues is the RCMP itself. The RCMP is populated with rednecks that have an inherent bloodlust against people of colour,” said Phillip.

In a news release, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, legal counsel for UBCIC, says while the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) of B.C. is reviewing whether police actions assisted in Alphonse’s death, the history and state of police interactions with Indigenous peoples demands more.

“Single accountability of one department in one city is recommended, but we are calling for an in-depth report and review on the systemic and legal failings that require immediate change and action because a second class and under-resourced public safety service has left families and individuals at risk in First Nations for too long,” Turpel-Lafond states. “It is discriminatory and causes tragedy and suffering.”

As per procedure, the independent investigations office (IIO) is already looking into the incident. Chief Civilian Director of the IIO, Ron Mcdonald noted their role isn’t to speak to possible societal causes, just the criminality of police actions.

“There may well be issues beyond that, actions of other people, whether the social services that are available for young people in that community were sufficient. Whether police are the right people to respond to these calls, those types of things are beyond our inquiry,” stated McDonald.