The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Feminist Policy Reform, and the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada

Addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) was a cornerstone for Canada’s first self-declared feminist government, elected in 2015. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is Canada’s national police force, tasked with responding to MMIWG and criticized for colonial practices contributing to the crisis. Given the promise of the government’s feminist commitments, this paper investigates whether the RCMP’s policy approach to MMIWG has changed since 2015. This paper critically analyzes RCMP and federal MMIWG policies before and after the 2015 election, revealing both change and continuity. The most profound change is the acknowledgment that the RCMP is part of the problem. The feminist government and Indigenous activism created space for this change. However, the policy continuity reflects what Kristin Bumiller calls “expressive justice”—a policy response that legitimizes state action by repositioning the RCMP as redeemable and trustworthy, revealing the limits of state-compatible feminisms.