Winnipeg Police Cause Harm is a community-centred police abolitionist group committed to defunding the Winnipeg Police Service and reallocating resources to life-sustaining services.
The murder of Elias Whitehead is the direct result of a culture where nearly all social, economic, and health-related issues are met with arrest, criminalization, and punishment.
The true beneficiaries of whatever “economic impact” is generated by the “games” are not workers or governments but capitalists, including owners of hotels, corporate Airbnb operators, restaurants, and stores.
A genuine attempt at working towards reconciliation could only look like the cancellation of the World Police and Fire Games and the use of public funds for reconciliation, by way of housing, food security, harm reductions, and reparations — rather than carceral spectacle.