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Winnipeg Free Press > Opinion > The View from the West > Traffic brisk at fateful food store

The View from the West

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Traffic brisk at fateful food store

By: Colleen Simard

26/09/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 12

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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12 Commentscomment icon

Stealing (shoplifting) is not a poverty crime, as the police will tell you. I heard of someone shoplifting a "5.00" item and they had 200.00 on them!! They said they got a "rush" from it. They did get arrested and it's not "pretty". I think most shoplifters steal for the "fun" of it and to "brag" about it. Yeah, it's pretty sick.
But, when one steals a can of meat, we do gotta wonder if she was in fact starving and/or trying to help the people where she was staying??? We just don't know, so we really shouldn't accuse. But, I will stand firm against her attacker hitting her with a baseball bat!!! That's going too far over a can of Klik!!!! As for boycotting the store, that will just go bad for the rest of the Aboriginal people. And, believe me, there are a lot of Aboriginal people that would agree with the store keeper. You steal, you get what you deserve, sort of attitude. They would also be angry with Beardy for "putting them in this light".

Colleen enlightens us with this statement..."Stealing something like food is a poverty crime -- a crime committed simply because the person doing the crime lives in poverty". Is that the same as "A stop sign is red -- it is red simply because it was painted red"? Good grief!

Colleen, a thief is a thief no matter how much you sugar coat it.

You know, if I was the owner of that food store the the story makes calls to boycott, I would seriously consider launching legal action against the Free Press.

null

Our country is doing the same thing in Afghanistan right now trying to impose democracy on a people who want no part of it.

The best thing for our country to do to rectify the situation is to leave people alone both here and in Afghanistan. What do you figure the chances are that will happen?

Right you are that the problem is the government and the Chiefs...they like things just the way they are or else something else would be done.





A poverty crime? Did you just make that up?

What a racist article.

When I read comments like the ones posted here I lose pride in my country. We shouldn't be like this when our own governments destroyed diverse cultures of pride and resposibility and then brutally imposed a single culture if idleness, dependency and despair. And the "I wasn't alive when it happened" argument doesn't apply. The country was alive, and the country did this. The country has a duty to rectify the situation. It is governments and Indian Chiefs who are the real problem, not the individual First Nations person who was born into an existence where a broken heart and a loss of faith is almost guaranteed.

And as for the duties and responsibilities of First Nations people, don't worry your racist little heads about that: I'm on it. Oh, did I forget to mention that I am a well assimilated tax paying Anishinabe who is a patriot of Canada and the Commonwealth. God save the Queen.

"It's never acceptable to use violence against anyone, whether it's a baby, a woman or a man." --Colleen Simard--

How about the government when they come for my money to redistribute in these poverty ending schemes, is it OK for them to use violence?

Apparently violence is always acceptable when the actor is an agent of the state obtaining money for all kinds of treaty rights or welfare schemes.



Colleen, your calls for a boycott of the store is about as reasonable of calls to boycott First Nations communities to stop stealing. And wouldn't a responsible journalist wait for the outcome of the investigation and trial before turning community members against the store owners?

Stop making excuses for stealing. Painting this woman as likely "desperate" to attempt to steal from a store with security cameras is very insulting to the intelligence of your readers. So is ignoring the fact that Ms. Beardy was in Winnipeg for specific medical attention and that her expenses including food and shelter were supposedly provided by the government through the reserve administration.

True, we don't know much about Ms. Beardy, but her mother has stated that she has struggled with alcoholism. You failed to mention that too.

So why was a woman who was on a medical trip financed by the so "desperate" to steal Klik from a grocery store?

It's not a question of poverty, or neglect or even racism. She likely used her money to feed her addiction instead of housing and feeding herself.

As far as her injuries and the actions of the store owners go, it seems that they may have stepped over the line. The fellow should have called the police but we both know that would have resulted in nothing. The police don't have time to go after someone accused of grand theft spam. So I can understand the frustration of these store owners in high high risk neighborhoods.

Quit with the excuse " I am poor"
" I deserve to steal and rob people because I am poor"
There have been generations of families in this city that were poor but they got off their backsides and worked. They contributed to society and made sacrifices to move ahead and never resorted to stealing.The people that run some of these stores have known poverty without any social safety net that people here couldn't comprehend.
So Colleen stop blaming the white man for your peoples woes and start preaching to them to start being accountable for their actions.

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