Barbara Kentner didn’t deserve attack, but deserves to be remembered

Barbara Kentner is a name which deserves to be remembered. She is the 34 year-old, indigenous woman who was hit by rusty trailer hitch in Thunder Bay this past January in an unprovoked attack because some local teens thought it would be fun to hurt an Indian.

Kentner died yesterday from severe damage to her internal organs she suffered during the attack. An 18year-old white man has been charged with assault in relation to the crime. It might be manslaughter now or attempted murder, but does it really matter? Kentner’s dead from a horrendous hate crime, and most likely her death will do absolutely nothing to diminish the racism in this country toward First Nations peoples.

The truth is Kentner is just the latest in a long line of Indigenous hate crime victims in this country. Sadly, you don’t have to look too far into the headlines to find the next incident.

Case in point, in 2014 a homeless, Aboriginal woman in Prince Albert named Marlene Bird had half her face cut off and her legs so badly burned in the assault they both had to be amputated.

On Canada Day some might have wondered why many in our First Nations communities did not get in the spirit of the day, some setting up a protest teepee on Parliament Hill and others taking part in Unsettling Canada 150 celebrations instead. When you hear about a case like Barbara Kentner or Marlene Bird then, really, it is not at all difficult to see why.

So what needs to happen going forward? Those of a skeptical bent would probably say no matter what anyone chooses to do, nothing is going to change. That racism toward First Nations people is too deeply ingrained in this country. Those of a more optimistic nature however, would hope the death of Barbara Kentner might come to mean something more. Maybe it becomes a rallying cry to reject hate and to self-interrogate our relations with indigenous peoples.

Kentner wasn’t perfect in life, but she did not deserve what happened to her. She did not deserve to become the victim of such a random act of hate.

What she does deserve is to be remembered, and have the lesson of her life and death learned by all Canadians.