Wellness Within Stands with Indigenous Communities Amidst Rise in Killings by Police

Between August 29 and September 8, 2024, six Indigenous people were killed in interactions with the RCMP and municipal police forces across the country. Wellness Within is horrified by this widespread violence, and heartbroken for the families and communities of the people killed. Moreover, violence against Indigenous people at the hands of police is well-documented and spans over many decades.

“While 5.1 percent of people living in Canada are Indigenous, 16.2 percent of people killed in police involved deaths are Indigenous” (Canadian Civil Liberties Association, 2023). No amount of training or cultural awareness will fix the broken system that is the RCMP. Wellness Within and fellow abolitionist organizations have long known that there is no possible reform for policing systems built on racist ideologies and establishing colonial control.

We have seen multiple federal governments in this country make promises of change and reform, but the killing continues. Wellness Within continues the call for investment in community organizations and safety measures outside of policing, and for the implementation of the calls to action laid out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

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Wellness Within is a volunteer-based registered non-profit organization that serves women, transgender, and nonbinary people who have experienced criminalization and are pregnant or have young children in Nova Scotia, part of the unceded and unsurrendered ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people. 

Wellness Within supports people through the full spectrum of reproductive health experience; facilitates workshops and education sessions; develops resource materials; and advocates for reproductive justice issues.

Contact: Natasha Hines, Chair, (902)717-2956 or natasha_hines@outlook.com, and Dr. Martha Paynter, Director of Research, 902-292-7082 or martha.paynter@gmail.com