Aboriginal group calls site’s ad a hate crime

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This article was published 05/03/2010 (6072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An aboriginal group is contemplating legal action after a post promoting racism appeared on a website Thursday.

The posting, titled “Free: Native Extraction Service” was found on the UsedWinnipeg.com website by a woman in Garden Hill First Nation, who was looking for a used television to purchase for one of her children. She contacted the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak advocacy group, which represents First Nation communities in northern Manitoba, and expressed her outrage.

Grand Chief David Harper was equally appalled.

“It’s very concerning for our organization that such things like this exist,” he said. “This is a hate crime.”

The advertisement was taken down Thursday afternoon.

The post suggested a service that would provide a “harmless relocation” of aboriginal youth, who are described as “those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner.” The ad went on to read: “Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habitat.”

According to the post, that habitat includes “the rez” and “Salter (Street).”

“This says if you’re a ‘rez kid’ you’re not wanted,” Harper said. “It disappoints me to have this kind of statement put on a free advertising website. Those things shouldn’t be allowed at all.”

The MKO believes the posting is a “criminal matter” and said it will explore legal action against the website.

“We’re going to look at our options,” said Louis Harper, counsel for MKO. “We’re not going to take this lightly. We’re trying to bridge the gaps between all communities and this has damaged that relationship we have in Winnipeg.”

The post includes a picture taken from the Internet of three aboriginal youth with their arms crossed, wearing their baseball caps backwards. The image is a photo from March Point — a 2008 documentary that follows the lives of three at-risk teens who get past the usual temptations by focusing on researching two oil refineries’ effects on the Swinomish reservation in Washington State.

The three males in the photo, Travis Tom, Nick Clark and Cody Cayou, starred and helped produced the critically acclaimed film.

Tracy Rector, one of the producers, was disgusted the film’s images were used in such a despicable manner.

“Aside from being horrified, I really can’t begin to tell you how upsetting this is,” she said from Seattle. “The work that we do as filmmakers is to break some of these stereotypes. This is really disappointing.”

UsedWinnipeg.com is owned by Black Press, a Victoria-based company that owns 47 different online classified sites. Luticia Hill, the general manager of UsedEverything.com, which oversees the Black Press sites, said the company immediately received complaints about the posting and pulled the ad less than 24 hours after it was posted.

“We take this type of thing very seriously and we have rules that we put in to avoid this,” she said.

Hill would not say who posted the ad or where the posting was generated from, adding that the company didn’t want to jeopardize any possible police investigation.

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca