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It is disturbing that racist comments against Inuit and Indigenous people are so accepted in society that an individual who is charged with protecting and serving all of Ottawa’s citizens, regardless of their race, class and gender, can make the above statements and face no repercussions.

What happens in 2016 when a police officer makes it explicitly clear that he believes Indigenous Canadians are a racially inferior subset of the population and speculates that we are to blame for our own deaths? In a CBC interview on Sept. 29, Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau gave us these answers: He refused to call the comments racist, stated that the officer had not been immediately disciplined, and attempted to rebrand despicable racist comments as an individual bias.

Chief Bordeleau went so far as to say, “I have no evidence to indicate that we have racist officers.” This shameful, clumsy endorsement of racist behaviour by his subordinate has dangerous implications for marginalized members of the population, such as Inuit.

The comments, and Bordeleau’s response come two months after the launch of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Inuit and other Indigenous women who have given testimony about this issue across the country have made it clear that discrimination within law enforcement plays a significant role in cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls that, too often, are not properly investigated.