CREDIT: PROVIDED BY IRA TIMOTHY
Grand Chief Joel Abram discusses systemic racism in Canada.

The conversation on systemic racism has been long ongoing, but the video of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis has amplified the voices of advocates for change in recent weeks.

In Canada, a spotlight has been shone on racism against Indigenous First Nations people from the country’s own police force.

On June 4, 26-year-old Indigenous woman Chantel Moore was fatally shot by police in Edmundston, N.B. during a wellness check.


On June 6, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam revealed footage showing Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers in Alberta forcing him to the ground and punching him in the head earlier this year.

On June 12, 48-year-old Mi’kmaq man Rodney Levi was fatally shot by the RCMP in New Brunswick.

Grand Chief Joel Abram spoke with Interrobang about these events and why now is the time for Canadians to acknowledge their country’s own history of racism.

Abram is from the Oneida Nation of the Thames Settlement. He is currently Grand Chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians.