Public Inquiry Commission on Relations Between Indigenous peoples and certain public Services in Québec: Listening, Reconciliation and Progress
Submission of “ Final Report (the Viens Commission)” whose mandate was to investigate, ascertain the facts and make analyses with a view to making recommendations as to the concrete, effective and sustainable measures to be implemented by the Gouvernement du Québec and by the Aboriginal authorities to prevent or eliminate, regardless of their origin or cause, any form of violence or discriminatory practices or differential treatments in the provision of the following public services to the Aboriginals of Québec: police services, correctional services, justice services, health and social services and youth protection services.
The Commission was created in response to a specific problem at a specific place, the “Val-d’Or Crisis” of October 2015. This crisis turned on allegations by a number of courageous Indigenous women on serious misconduct including physical and sexual abuse by certain officers of the Sûrete du Québec (SQ) detachment in Val-d’Or. After an investigtion by the Montréal Police Force ended with 36 of 38 charges being dropped and widespread outrage within the Indigenious world, the Québec government eventally acceded to the demands for an independent inquiry.
The 142 Calls for Action are spread across the following themes:
- Police Services 13
- Justice Services 16
- Correctional Services 18
- Health and Social Services 34
- Youth Protection Services 30
- Tracking Mechanism 5
- Other 26
The very first Call to Action was for the Government of Québec to make a public apology to members of First Nations and Québec’s Inuit for the harm caused by laws, policies, standards and the practices of public service providers.
https://www.cerp.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/Fichiers_clients/Rapport/Final_report.pdf