{"id":95956,"date":"2025-08-15T08:37:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:37:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=95956"},"modified":"2025-08-15T08:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:37:06","slug":"indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous people are overrepresented in police watchdog cases: B.C. report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Ashley Joannou The head of British Columbia&#8217;s police watchdog says Indigenous people are overrepresented in its investigations of officers conducted where a person is seriously injured or killed. In her first report as chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, Jessica Berglund says about six per cent of B.C.\u2019s population identify as Indigenous, yet 18 per cent of those involved in IIO investigations were Indigenous. Berglund says overrepresentation has been the case since the office started tracking the data five years ago. The report says Indigenous Peoples represented almost 29 per cent of affected persons involved in firearm files. Berglund says her office is working to improve accessibility and responsiveness and exploring new ways to make it more approachable to Indigenous communities. The independent office was created following&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F08%2F15%2Findigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ashley Joannou The head of British Columbia&#8217;s police watchdog says Indigenous people are overrepresented in its investigations of officers conducted where a person is seriously injured or killed. In her first report as chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, Jessica Berglund says about six per cent of B.C.\u2019s population identify as Indigenous, yet 18 per cent of those involved in IIO investigations were Indigenous. Berglund says overrepresentation has been the case since the office started tracking the data five years ago. The report says Indigenous Peoples represented almost 29 per cent of affected persons involved in firearm files. Berglund says her office is working to improve accessibility and responsiveness and exploring new ways to make it more approachable to Indigenous communities. The independent office was created following... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F08%2F15%2Findigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Indigenous people are overrepresented in police watchdog cases: B.C. report - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indigenous people are overrepresented in police watchdog cases: B.C. report - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ashley Joannou The head of British Columbia&#8217;s police watchdog says Indigenous people are overrepresented in its investigations of officers conducted where a person is seriously injured or killed. In her first report as chief civilian director of the Independent Investigations Office, Jessica Berglund says about six per cent of B.C.\u2019s population identify as Indigenous, yet 18 per cent of those involved in IIO investigations were Indigenous. Berglund says overrepresentation has been the case since the office started tracking the data five years ago. The report says Indigenous Peoples represented almost 29 per cent of affected persons involved in firearm files. Berglund says her office is working to improve accessibility and responsiveness and exploring new ways to make it more approachable to Indigenous communities. The independent office was created following\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/15\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T12:37:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/15\\\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/15\\\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Indigenous people are overrepresented in police watchdog cases: B.C. report\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-15T12:37:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/15\\\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":180,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/15\\\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/15\\\/indigenous-people-are-overrepresented-in-police-watchdog-cases-b-c-report\\\/\",\"name\":\"Indigenous people are overrepresented in police watchdog cases: B.C. report - 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