OTTAWA — Former Truth and Reconciliation commissioner Murray Sinclair says a video of a Mountie interrogating a young Indigenous woman disclosing sexual abuse in B.C. foster care brings home in a "visceral way" a reality that Canadians should be shocked by and one that they need to see.
The 2012 video was released publicly by APTN this week as a result of a court proceeding and has prompted political reaction, including from the federal public safety minister, who called its contents "absolutely abhorrent."
Warning: This video contains content that is graphic in nature - Police tape obtained by APTN News of an RCMP member interrogating a young Indigenous teenager after she reported a sexual assault while in foster care. https://t.co/OnTV5dmMBn pic.twitter.com/dLHTKPO9zY
— APTN National News (@APTNNews) May 14, 2019
Sinclair tells The Canadian Press in an interview that the video should cause Canadians to be more supportive of those who say police officers require more oversight.
He says Canadians have been told over many years that this type of treatment happens but he is not sure that they really accept it.
Policing is expected to be a key theme in the upcoming report by a federal commission on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada.
Sinclair says the Truth and Reconciliation Commission heard that the vast majority of women sexually victimized in residential schools felt they were not believed when they spoke to police.