(The following article is from the September 16-30, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Resolution adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, August 24, 2008

This meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada condemns the ongoing killing of civilians by police officers across Canada, and renews our demand for full civilian oversight of the RCMP, provincial and municipal police forces.

     On August 9, 18-year-old Freddy Villanueva was killed and two of his companions were shot by Montreal police officers. This tragic killing is the latest in a long series. The Montreal Coalition Opposed to Police Brutality reports that over the past 22 years, 43 people have died at the hands of the city's police, most of them members of racialized and impoverished communities. But this blatant record of police violence and racism continues unchecked. Only two officers have ever been charged in these Montreal cases, and both were acquitted.

     In Winnipeg this summer, two young Aboriginal men have been killed by police - 17-year-old Michael Langan, who died after being Tasered, and 28-year-old Craig McDougall, the nephew of J.J. Harper, who also died at the hands of police.

     The investigations into all these killings are always conducted by other police forces, which routinely clear their colleagues of wrong-doing. We give full support to community demands for a full and independent public inquiry into these deaths, and for suspension of the officers involved pending such an inquiries. The shocking pattern of impunity for police racism and violence across Canada, most often committed against Aboriginal people and immigrants, must be broken. Instead of an occasional slap on the wrist, criminal charges must be laid against all police officers who abuse their authority by shooting, tasering and beating people. Investigations of all such cases should be carried out by independent bodies, not other police forces. Justice must be won, for Freddy Villanueva, Michael Langan, Craig McDougall, and for the countless other victims of police brutality across Canada!