Charges dropped against Athabasca Chipewayan First Nations Chief Allan Adam

Charges against Athabasca Chipewayan Chief Allan Adam have been dropped this morning (June 24). 

In a statement, the First Nation confirmed that the charges against Adam were dropped this morning when he appeared in Fort McMurray Provincial Court via conference call. 

"Chief Adam, his wife and family, and we as your Council, are pleased with this result," the letter reads. "However, the withdrawal of charges does not change the events of that night in March or the resulting of trauma experienced by Chief Adam and family members who were with him during that encounter.  We know there is still tremendous work to be done to address the systemic injustices faced by Indigenous people in this country."

Video had recently surfaced of an altercation between Chief Adam and RCMP where he accused police of using excessive force and assaulting him after he was pulled over for expired insurance tags. 

The case is to be in front of a Fort McMurray provincial court judge today and court records show charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer are to be withdrawn. 

Adam said in a news release on June 6 that he, his wife and his niece were getting into his truck in the Peter Pond Mall in downtown Fort McMurray early on March 10 when officers confronted him.

The RCMP said Adam's truck had expired plates and the video shows Adam getting in and out of the vehicle, aggressively removing his coat and using expletives as he complains about being harassed by police.

Adam says the tags on his truck weren't up-to-date, but instead of simply reminding him to renew the tags and let him take a taxi home, he claims the officers 'used the occasion to beat and arrest' him' in front of family and a number of witnesses in the parking lot.'

An already tense situation deteriorates when a second officer pulls up, charges at Adam, tackles him to the ground and punches him in the head.

The chief, who was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, was left bloodied which led to Alberta's police watchdog agency announced it was investigating.

"Every time our people do wrong ... (the RCMP) always seem to use excessive force and that has to stop," Adam said. "Enough is enough."

Wood Buffalo RCMP said, in a statement, the dash-cam video had been reviewed by supervisors and "it was determined that the members' actions were reasonable and did not meet the threshold for an external investigation."

Adam believes the situation could have been easily resolved with authorities simply notifying him that he needed to update his tags.

"The license plate tags on my truck had recently expired and while the situation could have easily been resolved by simply reminding us to renew the tags and take a taxi home, officers used the occasion to beat and arrest me in front of family and a number of witnesses in the parking lot," he said. 

"What happened to me is not unusual or shocking. This happens every day to black, brown, low income and Indigenous people across Canada. Despite only representing five per cent of the population, Indigenous Canadians make up over 30 per cent of the prison population here. Structural racism, out of date policing methods and the diminished socio-economic status of Indigenous Canadians means that we rarely have a fighting chance in our judicial and policing system."

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British Columbia Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN) Regional Chief Terry Teegee said in an interview with PrinceGeorgeMatters he was frustrated overseeing the video.

"I think it's really frustrating to once again see that there's excessive use of force and whether this is a profiling incident for Chief Allan Adam, that could be another matter," he said.

"If being a case of just expired insurance, did they really need to, was it really necessary to use that much force and to you know, speak to his wife who was driving and to the chief who was in the passenger side, I think that it really demonstrates the use of force. When I first saw it, I think really I was angered. It was maddening to see once again the excessive use of force in the situation that could have been handled a lot differently and in a better way."

- with files from The Canadian Press