April 30, 2021
The Simon Fraser Student Society asks the Legislative Assembly of BC’s Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act to consider investing in community-based safety aids to benefit the entire community. In the letter sent this Thursday, April 29th, the Society lists six recommendations aimed at helping ensure that marginalized communities are protected from harm. The document affirms the SFSS’s support towards transformative justice, challenging the notion that increasing police presence and practices will increase safety.
The recommendations are as follows:
1. The Province must work with Indigenous peoples in BC to align the Police Act with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
2. Ban all police street checks.
3. Shift resources from policing to community safety and decriminalize social issues.
4. Decriminalization (of sex work, drugs and simple drug possession, public intoxication, poverty, immigration status, and of Indigenous land defense by Indigenous nations asserting Title and Rights on their lands and waters).
5. Moratorium on Police Use of Force and Surveillance Technology.
6. Overhaul of Police Accountability, Oversight and Governance Bodies.
In addition to the recommendations stated above, the SFSS endorses the demands of the Defund 604 Network with regards to policing.