With the announcement that RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki is stepping down, the FSIN is calling for an indigenous person to be the new commissioner.

The FSIN points out there are few first nations people in the RCMP, and none at the executive level. That includes the RCMP officer in charge of over seeing policing on more than 600 first nations communities.

“We’d like to call upon the Prime Minister of Canada and those in power with the RCMP to appoint a First Nations commission to address the historic injustices of the RCMP and provide an unbiased approach to policing Indigenous people. It’s not enough to accept new Indigenous recruits as junior officers. We know change must come from the top down and our people need to be granted the opportunity to hold management positions,” said FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron in a statement to the media

Lucki is stepping down from the job on March 17th.

The FSIN will be sending a formal letter to the RCMP to encourage a First Nations’ perspective when appointing the RCMP Commissioner.