Grand Chief files complaint with CATSA over handling of sacred pipe bundle

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This article was published 08/02/2016 (3849 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak is filing a complaint with the agency that provides security at airports in Canada after sacred items in his pipe bundle were unwrapped and handled by screening officers at Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport Monday.

Nepinak said he informed the first screening officer with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority what sacred items were in the pipe bundle and the bundle was sent through the X-ray as usual. But this time, instead of the items being returned to him non-tampered, screening officers decided to open the bundle. Despite Nepinak’s protests, items were unwrapped and handled by random officers. A tobacco tie was dropped on the floor.

Nepinak said in indigenous culture, only the custodian of a pipe may handle it. Only with the custodian’s permission, usually during ceremonies, would anyone else ever touch it, he said.

“I believe it to be one of the highest forms of disrespect that you could ever show to sacred items of our culture when somebody handles them uninvited or for the wrong reasons,” said Nepinak, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

“I said, ‘You shouldn’t be doing this to me.’ I’ve had this bundle all over the world and the most difficult time I get is right here in my own homeland, in Ottawa of all places,” Nepinak said.

He said he understands the need for security protocol but he’s been through international airports in places such as Paris, New Zealand and other Canadian cities and the protocol is the same — the pipe is X-rayed and never touched. Officers may ask to see it but they never touch it.

“My personal pipe travels with me when I travel on significant matters. It’s been part of my bundle of sacred items that accompanies me in every ceremony, every fast, every sweat lodge, the Sundance, everything I do in my culture is tied to my pipe,” Nepinak said.

“The pipe came to me from a very distinguished elder who has since passed on and it was passed to me through ceremony. I treat it with the utmost sacredness in everything I do.”

Nepinak said he was shocked by the disrespect to indigenous culture and lack of respect for the sacredness of the items as random screening officers handled the pieces of the pipe, even after he explained they should not be handled. Also, sacred pipes are usually gender-specific. A man would not handle a woman’s pipe and vice-versa.

“The girl working there was clearly in a hurry so she could do her job and get on to the next person. She wasn’t taking the amount of care that I would have expected from someone who had any clue about what they were doing when it came to a sacred bundle,” he said.

“I told her she should not be touching the things in the bundle and I think she thought I was challenging her authority or challenging her in some way so she got upset and there was an exchange (verbal). Finally I said, if it has to be handled, a man needs to handle it.”

Nepinak said a manager, who he said behaved in a confrontational manner, told the officer to whom he initially explained the bundle’s contents to take over the search.

“I told him, ‘You shouldn’t be doing this.’ As he was pulling out my items from my bundle, he said, ‘I don’t feel right doing this either,’” Nepinak said.

The man unwrapped more items and, when he got the pipe’s bowl, he took it back to the X-ray technician who looked at it, nodded and sent the man back to the bundle.

He was clearly uncomfortable and shaking a little bit and not handling the items the way I would expect someone to handle sacred items,” Nepinak said.

“He asked me to take over and so I wrapped everything up and left.”

Robert Labbe, spokesman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, said the screen officers involved in this incident would have received training, as do all screening officers.

“CATSA takes the screening of sacred items seriously and has procedures in place to ensure that the items are treated with respect. Screening officers are trained on the significance of such items and to screen them with care,” Labbe said.

“We encourage passengers travelling with sacred items, if they have concerns when they arrive, to speak with the supervisor when they arrive at the checkpoint and to advise them of the items they are carrying. In this case, we encourage passengers who have any questions or concerns about their screening experience to reach out to us directly.”

Labbe said an investigation would take place once Nepinak’s complaint was reviewed.

Nepinak said he doesn’t understand why the pipe bundle became an issue but suspected it was a demonstration of power by someone in a uniform who did not respect Nepinak’s role as a pipe-carrier and indigenous leader.

Nepinak said he will be contacting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the larger issue, which relates to reconciliation.

“We have to have a discussion about it as a higher-profile matter,” Nepinak said. “The issue of respect is lost in the need to demonstrate power and authority over someone.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca