The Capital Builders: Lynda Kitchikeesic – An Ojibway bridge-builder between Indigenous people and police – Ottawa Citizen
August 28, 2017
When an Ottawa police officer spat in her face nearly two decades ago, Lynda Kitchikeesic said nothing. Said nothing, but never forgot.
“I thought, ‘This sh– is not going down anymore. Cops aren’t going to be spitting in native women’s faces,’ ” Kitchikeesic recalls.
When the officer later tried to make amends, she would have none of it. She didn’t complain publicly, but she warned, “Nobody’s going to do that to a native woman again.”
It was an unlikely start to what would become Kitchikeesic’s surprising and constructive association with Ottawa police. In the 17 years since she says she “wormed” her way on to the force’s Community and Police Action Committee (COMPAC), whose goal is to “nurture and develop … communication, respect, accountability and trust” between police and minorities, Kitchikeesic has worked with four police chiefs, seven deputies and scores of rank-and-file officers.
