RCMP dashcam footage of the March arrest of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam shows an arriving officer jump-tackling the chief to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold.
In the nearly 12-minute video obtained by CBC News, an agitated Adam swears repeatedly at the police officers, accuses the RCMP of harassing him and removes his jacket while appearing ready to fight one of the officers after RCMP pulled behind his idling truck outside a Fort McMurray, Alta., casino early in the morning of March 10.
RCMP had noticed Adam’s licence plate had expired.
“F–king leave us alone!” Adam shouts at an RCMP officer, moments after he pulled up behind his idling truck in the parking lot with the cruiser’s lights flashing.
“Don’t f–king stop behind us like you’re f–king watching us.”
At one point, Adam tells an officer to tell his sergeant that “Chief Adam f–king tells you, ‘I’m tired of being harassed by the RCMP.'”
The officer, who is still in his vehicle at that point, repeatedly tells Adam to return to his vehicle and that he will talk to him in a minute.
“You and I are going to have a f–king problem, right here, right f–king now,” Adam tells the officer.
Adam appears to become increasingly agitated and at one point storms past the rear of his truck while removing his jacket. A few moments later, he assumed a fighting stance while his wife appeared to try to calm him.
RCMP dashcam footage of the March arrest of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam shows an arriving officer jump-tackling the chief to the ground without warning, punching him in the head and putting him in a chokehold. (Court exhibit)
The video shows the officer briefly grabbing Adam’s wife as she stands at the rear passenger side door of the truck. Adam yells at the officer to not touch his wife.
About seven minutes into the incident, behind Adam’s truck, the officer tries to grab Adam’s left arm in what appears to be an attempt to arrest him.
At that moment, another officer runs up and jump-tackles Adam to the ground. The second officer punches Adam in the head as he continues to struggle and a few seconds later places him in a chokehold.
“F–k you, don’t resist arrest!” the officer yells, along with, “Don’t resist! Don’t resist!”
Adam’s face is bloody as officers lead him to their vehicle.
‘I struck the male’
An affidavit filed in court along with the video quotes the notes of Const. Simon Seguin.
“I charged at the male [Adam] with the intention of bringing him to the ground,” Seguin wrote in his notes.
“I struck the male as he tried to come up,” Seguin later wrote. “He turned on his right side. I struck him using my right hand on his right side of the face.
“I wrapped my hand [left arm] around his jaw and started squeezing.”
WATCH | Nearly 12-minute dashcam video of Chief Allan Adam’s arrest:
This RCMP dashcam shows the whole interaction between Chief Allan Adam and the RCMP outside a Fort McMurray casino in March. 11:47
Seguin said at one point, “I then wound up placing my left knee on the back of the male’s head and ‘cranked’ the male’s left arm up.”
“The male [Adam] was complaining of police brutality.”
Chief alleges officers assaulted him
Adam, through his lawyer Brian Beresh, declined an interview request. An RCMP spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Beresh entered the video into the public court file Thursday as part of a motion seeking to have charges against Adam stayed. The RCMP had rejected Beresh’s call to publicly release it. The RCMP said they could not release it because it is evidence in the criminal case against Adam.
In an interview Thursday, Beresh said there is no way senior RCMP officers, after viewing the dashcam video, should have concluded the officers’ actions were appropriate.
“This was a false arrest; there was no basis for it, and it was excessive force used,” he said.
“We reject that totally. We will let the public look at the video and make a determination.”
At a news conference on June 6, Adam alleged Wood Buffalo RCMP officers assaulted him in a Fort McMurray, Alta., parking lot in March. (Jamie Malbeuf/CBC)
Beresh said he thinks Adam’s behaviour leading up to the arrest was “a reaction to the systemic racism that his people have suffered for a long time, and that is a part of what agitated him.”
“He, as the leader, feels that he has to stand up and make the statement,” Beresh said. “If you’re bothering me as the leader, what is happening to those people that have no voice?”
The incident occurred at about 2 a.m. MT on March 10 after Adam, his wife Freda Courtoreille and their niece left a casino in downtown Fort McMurray.
Adam said a police vehicle pulled up behind his truck while he was moving a child seat. He said he asked the officer why police were harassing him and told him who he was, and he said he told the officer he would raise the matter with his superior.
Adam said he made his way back into his truck where his wife was at the wheel, and that he told her that they weren’t allowed to go anywhere. He said she put the truck into drive, and then the officer began knocking on the window.
More officers arrived during the ensuing altercation, and Adam said one of the officers “just gave me a, what you would call in the wrestling world, a clothesline.”
During a news conference Monday, RCMP deputy commissioner Curtis Zablocki said he did not believe there was systemic racism in policing in Canada or in Alberta. (Michael Bell/The Canadian Press)
He said blood was gushing from his mouth and as he fought to maintain consciousness, he was being struck repeatedly on the back.
“Every time our people do wrong … [the RCMP] always seem to use excessive force and that has to stop,” Adam told reporters Saturday. “Enough is enough.”
Adam said that if he wasn’t a member of a minority group, he wouldn’t have been subjected to violence for an expired vehicle registration. He views the violent incident as part of a broader pattern of harassment by police of minorities across Canada.
Saturday’s news conference occurred amidst a paroxysm of mass demonstrations, some violent, across the United States, Canada and the world following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by police in Minneapolis.
Adam’s allegations of police brutality and the photo of his battered face have received widespread attention at anti-racism rallies, which attracted large crowds across the country.
RCMP says Adam resisted arrest
In an emailed statement Saturday, Wood Buffalo RCMP said officers had observed the expired licence plate on Adam’s truck and when he returned to the vehicle, a confrontation occurred. RCMP said Adam was placed under arrest, resisted the arrest, and officers “were required to use force to effect the arrest.”
A photo of the injuries sustained by Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam as shown in the affidavit filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta on June 11, 2020. (Court exhibit)
RCMP charged Adam with one count each of resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer. He is to appear in court July 2.
After reviewing the dashcam video of the incident, senior officers determined the arresting officers’ actions were reasonable “and did not meet the threshold for an external investigation.”
But Alberta’s director of law enforcement subsequently directed the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to conduct an investigation since a criminal allegation had been made about police by Adam and his lawyer.
Trudeau ‘deeply alarmed’
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was deeply troubled by Adam’s allegations and vowed to bring in “significant, concrete and rapid measures” to address systemic racism in policing.
“We have obviously all seen and been deeply alarmed by the pictures that Chief Adam shared,” Trudeau said.
The prime minister added his voice to concerns already raised by two other federal ministers, including Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, who said in a tweet that the government will be paying close attention to the independent inquiry into Adam’s allegations.
A photo of the injuries sustained by Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam as shown in the affidavit filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta on June 11, 2020. (Court exhibit)
Also on Monday, the commanding officer of the RCMP in Alberta publicly denied there was systemic racism in policing in Canada.
Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki told a news conference in Edmonton that he didn’t believe there was systemic racism in policing in Canada or in Alberta.
In a statement issued later, Zablocki walked back his claim, at least in part.
“We all acknowledge that racist individuals can be anywhere throughout our society and institutions — and we have acknowledged that organizationally in the RCMP.”
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
