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Investigation launched after northern Alberta chief accuses RCMP of assault | CBC News

Byindianadmin

Jun 11, 2020
Investigation launched after northern Alberta chief accuses RCMP of assault | CBC News

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam says Wood Buffalo RCMP officers beat and arrested him in a Fort McMurray parking lot earlier this year. Alberta’s Serious Incident Response Team has launched an investigation into the allegations of assault and wrongful arrest made by Adam.

At a press conference on June 6, 2020, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam spoke to reporters about an alleged assault by Wood Buffalo RCMP officers earlier this year. (Jamie Malbeuf/CBC)

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam says Wood Buffalo RCMP officers beat and arrested him in a Fort McMurray parking lot earlier this year — an allegation that is now being investigated by Alberta’s Serious Incident Response Team. 

At a press conference Saturday, Adam said he was assaulted by RCMP officers when he, his wife Freda Courtoreille and their niece as they were leaving a local casino in downtown Fort McMurray around 2 a.m. on March 10.

Adam says the registration on his truck was expired, but says the situation escalated when he began asking officers about what was happening. He said RCMP officers manhandled his wife, and then began to beat him.

“I dropped to my knees, and slowly I could feel I was going unconscious but all I could remember … blood was just gushing out of my mouth,” he said.

He said he was fighting to maintain consciousness, and could feel someone hitting him in the back.

WARNING: Explicit audio. Two citizens filmed a March 10, 2020 arrest during which Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam says Wood Buffalo RCMP officers assaulted him. RCMP have said superiors reviewed footage of the incident and deemed the officers’ actions reasonable. 3:44

“I yelled out, ‘What is going on? I’m the chief of ACFN. Why are you guys doing this?'” Adam said.

Adam provided a photograph of himself with a bruised and bloody face. He is calling for the federal government to investigate.

He said if he wasn’t a member of a minority group, he believes he wouldn’t have been subjected to violence for having expired registration. He said he sees it as a part of broader harassment of minorities by police across Canada.

“That has to stop. Enough is enough,” Adam said.

“I have a voice, and I am not scared to voice … [what] happened to my wife, and what happened to me.”

ASIRT investigating

Sue Hughson, the executive director of ASIRT, told CBC News that after a discussion with the province’s director of law enforcement, it had been decided late Saturday afternoon to begin the investigation into the allegations of assault and wrongful arrest made by

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