Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he will push premiers to equip police with body-worn cameras as a rapid, substantive solution to allegations of racism and brutality.
The cameras document police officers' interactions with the public and Trudeau said they are one relatively simple way to address complaints that police in Canada treat racialized people unfairly.
Trudeau spoke in response to several incidents across the country, including allegations of police brutality from a First Nations chief in Alberta. A 26-year-old Indigenous woman from British Columbia was shot dead by police in Edmundston, NB who say she had a knife and was making threats.
Canada-wide protests followed the massive American demonstrations sparked by the video showing a white Minneapolis officer kneeling on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, who died.
Trudeau wants the RCMP and municipal and provincial police forces to use body cameras. The RCMP rejected body-worn cameras in 2016 because testing revealed technical problems.
