October 30, 2024
(xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh)/Vancouver, B.C.) The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) fully supports demands from the families of nine First Nations individuals who were killed by law enforcement agencies across the country in August and
September.
On Tuesday, October 22, 2024, a group of individuals including the families of eight of the deceased gathered on Parliament Hill, on Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation Territory. This includes Laura Holland, a Wet’suwet’en woman and the mother of Jared Lowndes, who was shot and killed by Campbell River RCMP in
2021. Holland described police-involved killings as a state of emergency for Indigenous people across this country. The FNLC echoes this statement, as police-involved killings and violence against First Nations continues to occur across this country, while law enforcement officers are seemingly never held
accountable for their actions.
Earlier this year, the FNLC demanded that the BC Attorney General reconsider the court rulings regarding the deaths of Jared Lowndes and Dale Culver, who both died during their interactions with B.C. RCMP officers. On October 21, 2024, the Attorney General denied the request to issue any charges to the officers involved in both cases. The FNLC is outraged by this response and will continue to advocate for justice, in support of the families. We, as the FNLC, call on the Attorney General to reconsider this decision, and to appoint an Indigenous special prosecutor to re-evaluate the proceedings in both cases.
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