Demands for action grow as details of Indigenous surveillance program surface

 

Nearly 6,000 pages of documents reveal the Security Service was casually monitoring Indigenous political activity as early as 1968, amid concerns about outside influences from radicals and communists. Its posture changed in 1973, after 200 non-violent youth activists occupied the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa for 24 hours and made off with duffel bags full of documents. 

CBC Indigenous obtained nearly 6,000 pages of RCMP Security Service documents through access to information requests. They include intelligence dossiers compiled between the late 1960s and early 1980s. (Alex Lupul/CBC)

READ: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/rcmp-spies-1970s-indigenous-rights-9.7134112

NATIVE AMERICA CALLING:

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis leaders across Canada are calling for an investigation into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). That’s following a report by CBC Indigenous that uncovered evidence of a secret surveillance program targeting Indigenous organizations and individuals using wiretaps, informants, and counter subversion tactics from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The report confirms what many Indigenous communities long suspected.

We’ll also reflect on 150 years of the Indian Act, the Canadian federal statute that defines First Nations membership or “Indian Status”. A new bill in Canada’s parliament could significantly expand status eligibility for thousands of individuals and their descendants.

GUESTS

Russ Diabo (Kahnawake Mohawk), First Nations policy analyst

Daniel Sims (Tsay Keh Dene First Nation), associate professor of First Nations Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia