Indigenous lives under attack nationwide

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/02/2021 (2069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There has been torrent of local news this week highlighting violence against Indigenous people.

From the woman who died in one of the Winnipeg’s tent cities to the death of Will Ahmo in custody at Headingley jail, it’s clear Indigenous peoples continue to be put in unsafe situations and experience violent acts more than other groups.

This violence isn’t new, of course, we just hear more about it now — a credit to an ever-evolving media.

These stories, however, unveil an undeniable truth: from coast to coast to coast, there are near-endless waves of incidents.

Take, for instance, in Nova Scotia, where internal records released to APTN show government officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada knew violence was being organized last year against Mi’kmaq lobster fishers, but did little.

The result: threats, boat burnings, and physical attacks on Indigenous fishers evoking a legal treaty right took place with reckless abandon, and virtually no punishment.

In Montreal, Feb. 14 marked the 12th vigil for murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people (they take place on Valentine’s Day and Oct. 4, “Sisters in Spirit Day”).

Activists moved online, taking the opportunity to commemorate the more than 1,200 murdered and missing across Canada but also push the fact there is no Indigenous health-care facility in Montreal — one of the only Canadian cities without such a facility.

In Toronto, the equity organization Catalyst Canada released results of a study which stated 60 per cent of Indigenous workers feel “unsafe” on the job.

The report states Indigenous employees in Canada’s workforce experience “bias and discrimination that impacts their health, well-being, and ability to thrive.” They fear of making mistakes or taking risks because they will be penalized and fired.

In Thunder Bay, victim statements were shared at the sentencing of Brayden Bushby, who was found guilty in December of manslaughter for throwing a trailer hitch and injuring Barbara Kentner from Wabigoon Lake Ojibway First Nation in 2017.

Kentner, who had been out for an evening walk, suffered for months before dying. Sentencing for Bushby will be in May.

Last week also marked the third anniversary of the acquittal of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley, who, in 2016, shot Red Pheasant First Nation man Colten Boushie in the back of the head from point blank range.

He claimed the handgun “just went off” — and the jury believed him.

In Calgary, a group of junior high students are demanding the name of their former elementary school, named after Hector-Louis Langevin — one of the proponents of Canada’s residential school system — be changed.

After school trustees ignored a collective letter from the students, they went online and to the media. The city has previously acknowledged the problem: in 2017, Calgary took Langevin’s name off a bridge, renaming it “Reconciliation Bridge” in the “spirit of reconciliation with Indigenous communities of Treaty 7.”

On Friday in Edmonton – after numerous trials and appeals – Bradley Barton was found guilty for the 2011 manslaughter of Cindy Gladue (a Cree and Métis mother of three). Barton sexually assaulted her and left her to bleed to death in his hotel room bathtub.

In Kamloops, B.C, court ordered Kristopher Teichrieb to pay Jessie Simpson $6.9 million, after Teichrieb beat the Indigenous teenager nearly to death in 2016.

Teichrieb is currently serving a seven-year sentence; Simpson will need of round-the-clock care the rest of his life.

In Vancouver, University of British Columbia education Prof. Amie Wolf was fired, after being accused by numerous researchers and social media activists of misrepresenting herself as Indigenous.

Wolf “outed” a number of students as “racist” on her Twitter account last month, until UBC sent her a cease-and-desist letter. Wolf then allegedly threatened students and colleagues — many of them people of colour — with harm.

In Victoria, the Royal BC Museum was rocked with controversy, after Indigenous collections curator Troy Sebastian and other community members went to social media to blast the “wicked place.” Sebastian tweeted the museum is “a bastion of white supremacy” and “unsafe,” depicting “Indigenous peoples as backwards, socially stunted, and perpetually time stamped on the cusp of extinction.”

Museum chief executive officer Jack Lohman stepped down Feb. 9. A formal investigation is underway.

I could keep going.

These stories show Indigenous lives are under attack virtually everywhere. They show the issues aren’t just “bad apples” or one system, but a nationwide problem.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca