By Canadian Press

Indigenous teen’s treatment while disclosing abuse indicative of ‘pattern’

May 16, 2019 | 2:03 PM

OTTAWA — B.C.’s former child representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says the “heinous” treatment of an Indigenous teenager during a 2012 RCMP interrogation reflects a pattern she has seen over and over.

On Wednesday, politicians expressed outrage after APTN published a 2012 video of a male officer asking pointed questions of a young woman disclosing a sexual assault she experienced in the B.C. foster care system.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told the House of Commons the contents of the video were “absolutely abhorrent” after he was asked about it by Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

In 2016, Turpel-Lafond produced a report showing at least 109 girls were the victims of sexualized violence while in government foster care and that 74 of them were Aboriginal.

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The 2012 case was among them.

She says young women who face sexualized violence and then get inappropriate treatment by police are less likely to get support and more likely to be preyed upon.

The Canadian Press