'This shouldn't have happened': Vigil honours woman fatally struck by Winnipeg police cruiser

A community is looking for accountability after a First Nations woman was struck and killed by a police officer driving through a Winnipeg park on Monday. 

Dozens of people gathered for a vigil Wednesday evening held at Fort Rouge Park in memory of Tammy Bateman.

She was hit by a police officer driving through the small riverside park on Monday night, as police were taking a person back to a nearby homeless encampment. The woman, who was in her 30s, died from her injuries in hospital.

On a riverbank, near where Bateman was hit, a memorial sat Wednesday night, including an orange shirt and a square with a red ribbon laid on the ground. Some of those present, including Tammy's sister, Lori Bateman, placed flower bouquets at the memorial.

At a protest held at Portage and Main earlier Wednesday, Lori Bateman said Tammy was a member of Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation and had young children.

"This shouldn't have happened," Barb Guimond, an independent advocate for homeless people who attended the vigil, told CBC News. 

"These are people's lives we're dealing with and they matter, they're human beings. We all bleed the same," she said. 

The advocate didn't personally know Bateman but said after doing outreach work in Winnipeg streets, more resources are needed to prevent more people like Bateman from experiencing homelessness.

A sacred fire, lit during the ceremony, will be fed over the next five days and nights, watched over by community members at the request of the Bateman's family. 

A group of women, standing by the memorial, played drums as the fire was lit at the vigil. One held a sign reading, "No more stolen sisters. No more colonization. No more unprotected sisters." 

Melissa Robinson, co-chair of the outreach group Morgan's Warriors, attended Wednesday's vigil to support Bateman's family, lighting candles as night fell.

"When is this going to stop? The anger is there, the whole community is feeling it," Robinson said. "We're all very upset." 

She said there needs to be more mindfulness and respect when passing and moving around homeless encampments. 

Those sites, like the one at Fort Rouge Park, are packed with people's belongings and have become a home for many — often not by choice, she said.

"I wouldn't want someone walking through my home.… Why are the police allowed to come through and disrupt the way they did and take lives?" she said. "We need to do better."

Calls for changes to IIU investigation

The Independent Investigation Unit of Manitoba has assumed responsibility for the investigation. 

But as the province's police watchdog begins its investigation into Bateman's death, Osamuska Iskwe, a ceremony sister at the vigil, told CBC News the IIU investigation should be done differently than past ones.

"The [investigation] systems have continued to be designed in a colonial practice, so when the systems are being applied for Indigenous people, you're colluding with colonization," she said. 

"That is not our ways, that is not our sovereign ways, that is not our treaty ways." 

Osamuska Iskwe said before the investigation, she'd like to see an Indigenous advisory council appointed to the police watchdog agency, with a composition of Indigenous employees as part of the investigation.

"It sounds like a document or a way of a word, but it's not to us — that's a ceremony with all kinds of teachings," she said. "When it's carried out that way, the outcomes are very different." 

A provincial spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBC News Thursday the IIU currently includes employees from "various backgrounds, including persons of colour and  the Métis community."

The statement also said First Nations representation on investigative teams is a priority for the agency.

The IIU recently advertised a competition seeking Indigenous candidates for two senior investigator positions, the spokesperson said. The positions haven't been filled yet, but it's anticipated they will be in the coming weeks, according to the statement. 

There are no current members of any police force employed by the IIU, it said. 

Meanwhile, Osamuska Iskwe said she would also like to see an Indigenous-led, external audit report on the IIU's investigation, following the calls to action made by the Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

"It is time for those changes. It's time for it to be done in that good way,"  she said. 

Vigil honours woman fatally struck by Winnipeg police cruiser

3 months ago

Duration 2:29

Dozens of people gathered for a vigil Wednesday evening held at Fort Rouge Park in memory of Tammy Bateman. She was hit by a police officer driving through the small riverside park on Monday night, as police were taking a person back to a nearby homeless encampment.