Quebec aboriginal police forces disband as contracts expire

It appears there are more cracks forming in the government’s relationship with Canada’s First Nations community, after more than two dozen aboriginal police forces in Quebec disbanded amid stalled funding negotiations.

Twenty-six communities are now without their permanent police forces after the contract expired on Monday and delays hampered the signing of a new arrangement. The Montreal Gazette was told by one band chief that the deal was held up by a last-minute demand from the federal government.

While an agreement is expected soon, the delay has left the province’s First Nations communities without their established police forces. Officers from the Sûreté du Québec, the province's provincial force, have moved in to temporarily take their place.

[ Related: Bad signs for Harper government’s relations with First Nations ]

So is this the solution? Move provincial forces in places they had previously been pulled out of?

Canada's First Nations Policing Program was established in the 1990s in order to better "serve and respects cultural and linguistic diversities." If a deal isn't reached, is the solution to simply revert to a system already rejected as inferior?

Residents have told the Gazette that the situation is already "tense," and it is just getting started.

This is just the latest salvo in a growing tension between Prime Minister Stephen Harper's administration and First Nations communities.

[ More Brew: ‘Racist’ letter in Nanaimo newspaper sparks backlash ]

Yahoo! Canada's politics columnist Andy Radia wrote on Monday that a winter of roadblocks and rallies, topped by a faction of Chiefs demanding a new National Treaty Alliance, has strained the relationship, even as Harper makes overtures to heal the wounds.

The problem is that Canada's relationship with its First Nations people is complex and multi-layered. And every aspect, be it policing contracts or pipeline construction approval, threatens to spiral into something larger.

If and when Quebec First Nations police forces secure new contracts, it will be another matter settled. But there are so many more matters to settle, and all of the solutions seem temporary.