The Yukon government is ignoring calls for a public inquiry into police dealings with aboriginal people in the wake of Raymond Silverfox's Dec. 2 death in Whitehorse RCMP cells.

This week in the legislative assembly, New Democratic Party MLA John Edzerza led the charge for more oversight on police.

During Tuesday's question period, he asked Justice Minister Marian Horne why recommendations from three previous coroner's inquests on similar tragedies were not implemented.

Silverfox was the fourth person in 10 years to die while in police custody in Whitehorse.

Horne said the government has no jurisdiction for enforcing such matters.

On Thursday, she backed the RCMP in spite of Edzerza's request for an independent public inquiry to restore public trust.

"This government has confidence in the RCMP and their treatment of Yukoners in general," Horne said.

But it's the RCMP's treatment of aboriginal people that worries Edzerza.

The latest death has also spurred the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) into the fray.

"The CRRF is also concerned that the issue of "systematic prejudice" raised by Yukon MLA John Edzerza that Mr. Silverfox's death, which brings to four such deaths ... should warrant an investigation," the Toronto-based said in a statement released Thursday.

The CRRF also accused Premier Dennis Fentie of "avert(ing) any discussion on the issue."

This criticism comes after Edzerza was rebuked by both Fentie and House Speaker Ted Staffen for suggesting there is "systematic prejudice" toward first nations people by the RCMP in the territory.

Yesterday, Horne refused comment to the media, relaying through a government official that her statements in the legislature are final.

In a radio interview broadcast on CHON-FM this morning, Fentie also rejected a public inquiry and said Edzerza is "hiding behind the immunity of the legislative assembly."

"Mr. Edzerza has made serious accusations," Fentie continued. "I encourage him to demonstrate the strength of character to make those accusations outside the legislative assembly."

Today, Edzerza did just that.

"How do you talk about systemic prejudice or anything to do with the feeling of being singled out ... how do you say that without using that vocabulary?" he asked.

Edzerza said he felt compelled to raise the issue after five friends and family members of Silverfox told him they believe the deceased was singled out.

"I didn't accuse anybody of anything, and I didn't say anybody was racist," said Edzerza, upset that the premier, in his view, has twisted his words.

In the legislature and in the media, Fentie has said Edzerza alleged racism in the RCMP ranks when the New Democrat's original statement included the phrase "systemic prejudice."

"We suspect that we are witnessing systemic prejudice by the RCMP whenever they arrest intoxicated people of first nations ancestry," are Edzerza's words taken from the legislature's Hansard from Tuesday.

And for Edzerza, four such incidents in a decade is something the public should be concerned about, and no less than a public inquiry will suffice.

"Dennis Fentie appears to be more interested in trying to avert this issue than trying to deal with it," said Edzerza, who was once a cabinet minister under the premier.

"So I'll keep it in his face for a while so he does wake up and smell the roses and start to be concerned about this.

"If he isn't. I think he should be."