Thousands unite to demand end to racism

Full text of the Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg petition:

Demands for the City of Winnipeg

1. Defunding/abolishing the Winnipeg Police Service.

Above all else our group supports and advocates for complete abolition and defunding of the Winnipeg Police Service. In Canada, the history of the police come from the racist colonial aftershocks used simply to control, manipulate and abuse Indigenous peoples in attempts to steal their land. We as Black people recognize and acknowledge that our current policing system is simply a reformed version of the racist and extremely violent slave patrol. No reform can come from these colonial practices, the system must be rebuilt and include marginalized voices in the process in order to protect all BIPOC to this city’s full capability.

We strongly believe in the ability of local communities, grassroots organizers and grassroots organizations to provide what their community needs directly, in order to effectively and efficiently step in and take over what legal responsibilities the police currently have.

There are numerous volunteer organizations in Winnipeg which have already taken on this idea and shown us what this concept can look like in practice and actuality such as Mama Bear Clan, volunteer organization AYO, Klinic Community Health, Spence Neighborhood Association and many more. We believe that the large chunk of city funding which goes towards the Winnipeg Police Services would be much better allocated in supporting existing community initiatives, or in funding new ones to arise.

We are petitioning for the City of Winnipeg to use Black and Indigenous grassroots organizers and activists as well as the citizen group Winnipeg Police Cause Harm to come up with a concrete and serious plan of action towards achieving this goal in our city complete.

An important aspect to note in this defunding plan, we are also calling for the end of Cadet use as they are mini-cops in the city carrying out injustices just on a micro level which never make it to the mainstream. Cadets are an extended entity of the police, so we are calling for them to be defunded as well. Everyone who contributed to this petition can attest they have witnessed inappropriate violence primarily against homeless Indigenous folks who live Downtown from Cadets.

2. We understand that defunding and abolition will require time.

We have several demands that the City of Winnipeg must implement and codify. In the meantime, several are adopted from the demands that the NAACP have recommended, and others created and recommended by us.

We are calling for a complete ban on use of kneeholds and chokeholds for the Winnipeg Police Service as a reasonable means of response and action in any situation.

We are demanding that all police misconduct information and disciplinary histories (past and present) are not hidden from the public. Everything must be released with complete transparency, no more lies, no more coverups.

We are demanding the immediate implementation of a citizens review board to hold police departments accountable for misaction-action created in collaboration with Indigenous and Black grassroots organizers.

The City of Winnipeg must adopt a zero-tolerance policy in penalizing and/or prosecuting police officers who kill Indigenous and Black folks rather than effectively de-escalating the situation. No investigation should allow state legislated murders to be carried out by an external body of government without accountability and full responsibility.

3. City of Winnipeg Issue a public statement calling for immediate prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of D’Andre Campbell, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and Jamal Francique.

The three Black Canadians were murdered at the hands of the police and received no justice. In all three cases, the police worked extremely hard to cover up their mis-action and bury news about these cases from making their way to the mainstream media. Not anymore.

4. Mayor Brian Bowman finally acknowledge and condemn the actions of the Winnipeg Police Service from 2019-20 which resulted in the untimely deaths of the Machaur Madut, Eishia Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Randy Cochrane, Sean Thompson, and Chad Williams in a public forum.

Do not address all those who have passed in one single statement, we demand separate statements for each individual. The way they were murdered was one at a time and the acknowledgement needs to reflect that. The families of those who have passed at least deserve that amount of respect by the supposed leader of our city. These are also only names which are actively in the media. We understand that there are many who passed in police custody and their names simply were not released. We are fighting for acknowledgment of those individuals as well; to their families, this fight is also for you.

5. After new steps have been taken to ensure officers cannot evade responsibility, we are calling for a new investigations into the deaths of Machaur Madut, Eishia Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Randy Cochrane, Sean Thompson and Chad Williams. Police do not get to murder and face no consequences; they must be held accountable like everyone else. Being a police officer is not a get out of jail free card, it cannot be used to justify murder.

We are also calling for investigations into the deaths of unnamed and unidentified individuals who died at the hands of the police or in their custody.

Demands for the Province of Manitoba

1). To give the City of Winnipeg any resources or support they may reach out for in accomplishing demands laid out above.

2. To cut all current ties that the Manitoban education system has with police, and commit to allowing this disconnect to be permanent. Their presence is not only traumatizing for young children, it also allows for unfair cop propaganda to be fed to children from a young age. This gives officers the opportunity to harass BIPOC in a place where all children are supposed to feel safe, included and welcome.

3. We are calling on Premier Brian Pallister to finally acknowledge and condemn the actions of the Winnipeg Police Service from 2019-20 which resulted in the untimely deaths of the Machaur Madut, Eishia Hudson, Jason Collins, Stewart Kevin Andrews, Randy Cochrane, Sean Thompson, and Chad Williams in a public forum. Do not address all those who have passed in one single statement, we demand separate statements for each individual. The way they were murdered was one at a time and the acknowledgement needs to reflect that. The families of those who have passed at least deserve that amount of respect by the supposed leader of our province.

Do not address all those who have passed in one single statement, we demand separate statements for each individual. The way they were murdered was one at a time and the acknowledgement needs to reflect that. The families of those who have passed at least deserve that amount of respect by the supposed leader of our city. These are also only names which are actively in the media. We understand that there are many who passed in police custody and their names simply were not released. We are fighting for acknowledgment of those individuals as well; to their families, this fight is also for you.

4. Demand that the Province of Manitoba issue a public statement calling for immediate prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of D’Andre Campbell, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, and Jamal Francique.

The petition can be found here.