On the same day George Floyd’s lawyer demanded that the other three Minneapolis police officers involved in Floyd’s death face charges, the BC Premier addressed the province.
With protests all over the United States and even in Vancouver and Victoria, John Horgan issued a reminder to protesters to take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of COVID19.
He said, while what is going on south of us is horrible, our record on racism is far from perfect.
“I’m horrified to see what happened to George Floyd, I’m horrified when I see the response in major US cities and what I do know is that, although we do our level best to address racism here in British Columbia, it exists here as well,” said Horgan.
“Although we do our best to make sure that law enforcement treats everyone equally, we have blemishes on our record as well,” added Horgan.
He said we’ve had some racially-charged incidents in our province.
“We can always improve on what we do, whether it’s giving police better tools to better understand how to interact with people from different backgrounds,” said Horgan.
Horgan added, “We’ve certainly had challenges with racism going back to The Head Tax for Chinese Canadians, the Komagatu Maru when it comes to South Asians, Indigenous Peoples have experienced racism since the beginning of settlement here in British Columbia.”
“It’s imperative that all of us stand together,” said Horgan.
Horgan hinted that we may move to Stage Three of the provincial restart as early as the middle of this month, but in order to do that, COVID19 numbers need to remain low.
