B.C. First Nation files Charter challenge over RCMP refusal to enforce bylaws

Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett, right, speaks as Hereditary Chief Wigvilhba Wakas Harvey Humchitt Sr. listens during a news conference, in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. The Heiltsuk Nation has filed a lawsuit against the RCMP over what they say are failures by the RCMP to enforce Heiltsuk bylaws and portions of the Indian Act within the nation's territory in Bella Bella. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

A small First Nation on British Columbia’s Central Coast is taking the attorney general of Canada to court, arguing its Charter rights have been violated because the RCMP refuses to enforce its bylaws.

The Heiltsuk Tribal Council says in its lawsuit that the police are “emboldening drug dealers” and other wrongdoers to enter and stay on reserve lands by refusing to enforce its bylaws banning people engaged in dangerous activities.

Elected Chief Marilyn Slett says her community in Bella Bella, B.C., is experiencing a crisis due to drugs and drug trafficking and that harms from overdoses and sexual violence are made worse because of the police refusal to enforce Heiltsuk law.

Slett says if a non-Indigenous municipality, landowner or business asks for enforcement of a property law, the RCMP takes action without question, but when an Indigenous government makes the same request, they are refused.

The lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court argues that the Mounties' refusal to act amounts to unequal and discriminatory treatment that infringes on the First Nation’s section 15 Charter rights to receive equal protection and benefit of the law without discrimination.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs says a failure by the RCMP to enforce bylaws is a Canada-wide problem that erodes the rule of law in First Nations communities.

He says even if communities know who the drug dealers are “it’s virtually impossible to shut them down” because the RCMP says there is nothing they can do.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2025.

The Canadian Press