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‘On the inside’: Why some Indigenous officers stick with the RCMP despite struggles
OTTAWA — Dean Gladue says he never experienced racism until joining the RCMP.
The 26-year veteran began his career with the force in 1989 as special constable, a role assigned to police First Nations reserves. It was a rank below his non-Indigenous colleagues, who were better paid.
It felt like he was “a second-class citizen,” he said in a recent interview.
After the program shuttered, Gladue transitioned into a job as a regular constable. The 25-year-old Métis man would then overhear offhand comments around the office, with ones like how a “dead Indian’s a good Indian” later brushed off as stress when raised to a supervisor.