THE WAY FORWARD

Kamao Cappo urged to tap into forgiveness

Noel Starblanket has felt the sting of racism, but he’s had to learn forgiveness.

Still, the life speaker understands the anger Kamao Cappo voiced Thursday after police announced no criminal charges would be laid against a former Canadian Tire employee that Cappo said assaulted him in the east-end business on July 26.

Cappo laid the complaint with police after he and a friend went into the store to buy a chainsaw. They left without it after Cappo said a store employee accused him of stealing, assaulted him and forced them to leave the store. Cappo believes he was accused because he is Indigenous.

The Leader-Post contacted Canadian Tire on Thursday for a response to the decision. On Friday, a company spokesperson emailed the paper saying: “This is a police matter and we will not be commenting further.”

“If we’re going to go forward, we have to have hope in the goodness of people, but my eyes are not closed that (racism) exists,” Starblanket said. “I have personal experience as Kamao has had, but I’ve had to learn how to forgive. I’ve had to learn how to put that behind me.

“That’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in life.”

Starblanket thanked the throngs of people who came to City Square wearing orange shirts Friday morning — an event to acknowledge the harm done by residential schools.

“The more that citizens are being educated to this, the better it will be,” he said.

Starblanket believes progress is being made in terms of equality for First Nations people as a result of the leadership shown by municipal, provincial and federal governments.

In the sea of orange shirts at City Square was Janna Pratt with her son, Buck.

In spite of events promoting reconciliation, racism still exists, she said.

“It will get better if we make our kids aware and that’s why I brought my son with me because it’s important that he sees our community wants to make this right,” said Pratt, whose memories of residential school continue to haunt her.

When asked about the decision not to lay charges in the Cappo case, Pratt was disappointed because it reinforces stereotypes about First Nations.

“Those are the result of residential schools and Canada’s racist policy toward First Nations,” Pratt said. “And when you see those stereotypes evolve into an incident such as that at Canadian Tire, it’s like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is 2017...’ We all need to be treated with respect and dignity, especially when we’re shopping and contributing to the economy.”

Prior to the memorial teepeeraising competition at the University of Regina on Friday, Gaylene Anaquod expressed excitement that Mayor Michael Fougere was presenting her family with the Anaquod Road street sign.

A section of Tower Road will be named Anaquod Road in honour of her late father, Glen, a respected elder and residential school survivor.

“We’re humbled and proud by the city’s reconciliation efforts especially recognizing Indigenous people from Regina for their contribution to being part of this city,” Anaquod said. “My dad believed in cohesiveness, working together and celebrating each other’s differences, culture and ethnicity.

“He believed in bringing people together.”

The live Facebook video Cappo posted of the interaction between him and the man who was employed by Canadian Tire on July 26 sparked a firestorm on social media. Comments revealed a racial divide in the province.

“My dad believed in acknowledging that (racism) was there for sure, but he wanted to celebrate more working together,” Anaquod said. “To him, there was always enough focusing on the negative aspects ... There will always be racism, but each of us need to do our part to make the world a better place.”

When she read about the Cappo case, she wondered what factors led to the decision, which she described as disappointing.

“It takes courage to be able to voice when there’s unfair treatment and when it’s racism in general .... In saying that, it just shows that we have a lot of work to do and I know the city police does a lot of Aboriginal culture training .... We need to continue our efforts to mend and build bridges between all cultures to create that understanding so that we can move forward in a good way to be the Canada that my ancestors wanted.”