The View from the West

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Traffic brisk at fateful food store

By: Colleen Simard

Posted: 09/26/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

I went to check out the store on Alexander Avenue where Geraldine Beardy went days before she died. Maybe it sounds ghoulish, but I had to check it out for myself.

Beardy's death made headlines, first when police were looking for witnesses to her alleged beating, then later after her death. The store owner is being charged with assault and a police investigation continues.

In the well-lit store I took a quick look at the storekeepers -- two older men caught up in a conversation -- before I made my way up and down the aisles. What the heck am I doing here? I thought to myself.

It's alleged Beardy died after she tried to steal a can of lunch meat from this store. Beardy's mom told media the store owner hit her with a baseball bat.

First I went to the drink coolers, and then I walked down aisle she walked down, and found the section where the canned meat was for sale. It's near the front of the store, close to the cashier's counter.

Holiday luncheon meat $1.49, the sign says. There are video cameras in a few choice spots, and a homemade sign greets you on the front door, telling you to smile, you're "on camera."

You'd have to be desperate to steal from this place.

The prices on most items are marked up a bit -- most of it from Sobeys -- but pretty reasonable. I've seen worse prices in my neighbourhood. The floor tiles are dirty, and a brisk business seems to be happening, despite the recent incident. Most of the customers are aboriginal.

On the same aisle, just a few feet away, a single bottle of clear cooking wine stands like a lone soldier on watch -- $2.19.

I don't know what to feel, but after a few minutes of staring at food I decide it's time to leave. A newspaper stand by the door has a few copies of the Winnipeg Sun. The headline reads Killed for Klik?

News coverage is shifting, it seems. The news of the day is focused on the violence store keepers have to face on a daily basis. But taking matters into your own hands is wrong.

I haven't heard anything about Beardy -- a 29-year-old mother of three -- being violent.

The anonymous comments about Beardy on CBC's website don't show a whole lot of intelligence. Most of the 700 I saw were posted by a bunch of yahoos who think it's justifiable to kill someone if they try stealing an item costing less than a cup of coffee.

Still others find the story is an easy way to spew their hatred for aboriginal people.

Everybody is talking, but what nobody's saying is Geraldine Beardy was a victim of poverty long before she died.

Stealing something like food is a poverty crime -- a crime committed simply because the person doing the crime lives in poverty.

Petty crime is a common problem for every store owner, but the violence allegedly used in this situation went way too far. It's never acceptable to use violence against anyone, whether it's a baby, a woman or a man.

Geraldine Beardy made a mistake, but so did the storekeeper, it is alleged.

So what do we do now?

There's no need for retaliation or violence, but there needs to be action from the community on this. How can we not be outraged when a woman is allegedly killed by a violent attack with a baseball bat?

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper has spoken out. He says the aggravated assault charge against the store owner doesn't go far enough.

But if I was Harper I'd go further and call for First Nations people to boycott the store. Picket that store and make it public knowledge that vigilante behaviour is unacceptable. This shouldn't happen again.

Colleen Simard is the publisher of Urban NDN.

colleen.simard@gmail.com

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 26, 2009 A18

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