Saskatchewan is known as the “land of the living skies”
for its breathtakingly colourful northern lights. It is also one of the most
beautiful prairie-provinces in Canada, with stunning purple sand beaches and
the incredible Sahara-like Athabasca Sand Dunes that stretch for nearly 100
kilometres. The province also boasts over 100,000 lakes and rivers, making it
nearly 12% water. The diverse Indigenous Nations which have thrived on these
territories since time immemorial have tied their customs, practices and traditions,
and even their traditional Indigenous knowledge systems to the life-giving
resources from these rich lands, waters and eco-systems. The very land that has
sustained the Nehiyaw, Anishinabe and other Nations for thousands of years is
firmly rooted in their identity as individuals, families, and Nations. Sadly, Saskatchewan
is also well-known as one of the most racist provinces in Canada. With
colonization and the clearing of the plains, came brutal acts of genocide, land dispossession and violent
racism against First Nations – a legacy that has and continues to be a lethal
reality for First Nations.
Saskatchewan is the home to farmer Gerald Stanley, who
shot and killed an unarmed First Nation youth, Colten Boushie, in cold blood in 2016, but was
found not guilty by an all-white jury two years later – a result that shocked
the nation. But it’s not just white farmers killing Indigenous peoples – 62.5%
of people who died from police encounters in Saskatchewan were Indigenous,
despite being only 11% of the population. But this should not come as a shock
to anyone. It wasn’t that long ago in 2004 that the Neil Stonechild Inquiry
exposed the Saskatchewan police practice known as “Starlight Tours” to the
world. Starlight Tours occur when police officers detain Indigenous youth,
drive them out of town and leave them stranded in sub-zero temperatures causing
their deaths. While this racist practice was well-known by First Nations as
common practice, Canada had a hard time accepting the persistence, prevalence
and lethal nature of racism in this country. Meanwhile, the rate of murdered
and missing Indigenous women and girls continued to climb.
In 2014, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
released a report on the “known” cases of murdered and missing Indigenous women
and girls in Canada which showed that Indigenous women and girls make up only
2.5% of the Canadian population, but 16% of the murder victims in Canada. However,
Saskatchewan had the highest provincial rates - 55% of all murders of women were
Indigenous. This unique intersection of racism and misogyny creates a situation
where sexualized violence is perpetrated against Indigenous women and girls at
alarming rates with relative impunity, and by all walks of society. While it is
true that domestic violence is part of the issue, many of the murders and acts of sexualized violence were committed by society – doctors, lawyers, teachers, judges,
social workers, foster parents and even police officers. Human Rights Watch
released a report about police officers in Saskatchewan who commit sexualized
violence against Indigenous women and girls in their custody, including sexual
harassment, assault, invasive strip searches by male officers, and groping.
Racialized violence, abuse and neglect of First
Nations is so ingrained in Saskatchewan that it is not only reflected in societal
attitudes, but those of its governing bodies and agencies. Nowhere are the
socio-economic conditions worse for First Nations than in the sister provinces of Manitoba and
Saskatchewan. More than 80% of all children in care in
Saskatchewan are Indigenous – second only to Manitoba’s 90% - primarily due to discriminatory
agency practices or conditions of poverty from chronic and discriminatory government under-funding
of core social services. Racism has a multiplier effect where not only are
Indigenous children wrongly apprehended, but because of that race-based
apprehension, they are less likely to get a high school education, and more likely
to end up in youth corrections. More than 2/3 of all Indigenous peoples in
prison were in the child welfare system. It should be no surprise
then that Indigenous foster girls are also over-represented in murdered,
missing, and sex trafficked and those exploited in the child porn industry. Human traffickers know exactly where to get them - foster and group homes.
These multiple, over-lapping crises rooted in racism
and violence against Indigenous peoples is getting worse. The Supreme Court of Canada,
the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator, the Auditor General, child
welfare advocates, and numerous United Nations human rights bodies, together
with countless research findings, commissions, inquiries and coroner’s reports
all point to continued failures by federal and provincial governments to take
concrete action to stem or reverse these crises. This failure, which is
nothing less than colossal in Saskatchewan, sends the very toxic message to
society that Indigenous lives have less value. Despite all the symbolism in a
post-TRC report Canada, provinces like Saskatchewan have made very few
substantive changes that have addressed any of these issues. All the political
meetings, negotiation tables, and other so-called partnership initiatives
haven’t stopped the suffering of the people – instead conditions are getting
worse.
This is the reason that Idle No More was born. Not
only did this organic social movement grew from Indigenous grassroots community members –
it was inspired by federal and provincial government inaction on these social
issues and their constant breach of our Aboriginal and treaty rights. Omnibus
bills to remove protections for the many lakes and rivers which make up
Saskatchewan, together with provincial leases, permits and other authorities
for corporations to continue to steal from Indigenous lands helped inspire a
Saskatchewan born, nationwide movement to demand action. Idle No More wasn’t
the first public show of protest over racial injustice, and it won’t be the
last. First Nation family members of lost loved ones organized the Justice for
Our Stolen Children Camp to again raise awareness and demand action. Their
message was simple - the gross injustices committed against First Nations
peoples in the name of racism and misogyny, like poverty, homelessness,
over-incarceration, over-representation of our children in foster care and
murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls – are all getting worse, not
better.
It would appear that Saskatchewan’s Premier is wholly
detached from the problem. His focus seems to be on maximizing extraction of
resources from First Nation lands; ignoring Aboriginal, treaty and lands
rights; and clearing the legal playing field for more violence. In his recent
Throne Speech, Moe announced that he will pass “trespass” legislation to allow
more policing in “rural” areas. His focus is on the property rights of rural farmers
without any mention for the safety of rural First Nation communities. We all
know what this means. More laws to protect farmers who may hurt or kill other
First Nations youth. His plan is eerily similar in nature to the bills proposed
in the United States by certain states, to protect those (white people) who run
over protesters with their cars, for example. Then add to Moe’s trespassing
legislation, the fact that he is planning to arm conservation officers with
AR-15 type carbine rifles! The very same conservation officers, who have recently been authorized
to enter reserves through an MOU with the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous
Nations (FSIN).
There is a political storm brewing in Saskatchewan
that further risks the lives of First Nations people. Trespass legislation and
semi-automatic weapons are the not answer. Land and resource transfers back to First Nations, ending discriminatory practices, implementing treaty rights - all of those would contribute to justice for First Nations. Pumping more weapons into First Nation territory will only lead to more deaths.
It is long past the time that the province of
Saskatchewan take real steps to stem the race-based violence and deaths of
First Nations from whose lands and waters every single resident of Saskatchewan
benefits.
