A STATE OF RACE
Part 1 of our series looking at how far we’ve come and how far we have to go
The envelope arrived anonymously at the Leader-Post, with no way of knowing who sent it or why.
Its sole content was a copy of the front page of the newspaper from late November, when the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was underway in Saskatoon.
That day’s cover featured a photo of Gwenda Yuzicappi, shadowed by a larger image of her daughter Amber Redman, just 19 when she went missing. After nearly three years of silence, her killer unwittingly led RCMP officers to her murdered body.
In the search for a scrap of paper, the sender of the envelope had, perhaps unwittingly or not, clipped a snippet of paper from what appears to be an advertisement with the face of a grinning white child. And on the reverse, blank, white side, in stark black marker, were the words: “Sooner or later there will be a WHITELASH in Saskatchewan” — a play on the word backlash but with racial overtones. Some U.S. commentators used the term in describing Donald Trump’s win.
But clearly the sender here was referring to race relations in Saskatchewan.
The note arrived, coincidentally, as the Leader-Post was planning a seven-part series delving into many of this year’s controversial news stories that revolved around the relationship between Saskatchewan’s Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and peoples.
Those issues that dominated headlines began in schools and universities, sports fields, stores, conference rooms and even the Saskatchewan legislature, and spilled into letters to the editor, call-in shows, online forums and social media posts.
At times, the dialogue laid bare, at best, the need for further learning and, at worst, a racist rhetoric and suspicion that is stubbornly entrenched, even in an age of Truth and Reconciliation. The debates reflected the push and pull of race relations in a province that draws its name from a Cree word for river. For every step that closes the divide, others widen the margin.
Education Minister Bronwyn Eyre’s comments on a school assignment and Indigenous curriculum; Kamao Cappo and Ezekial Bigknife’s treatment by store security officers; proposals to strip such names as Dewdney, Davin and Macdonald from monuments; a Facebook threat to “get you white f------ just like Vegas” at a local outdoor music festival; calls for stand-your-ground laws by rural landowners; a lawsuit sparked by protest of a polarizing author; news conferences questioning investigations into the deaths of Nadine Machiskinic and Haven Dubois; a Melfort newspaper editorial criticized as “casual racism”; allegations of racism in a civil trial involving the province’s Coroner’s Office; police street check policies; the exclusion of Metis survivors in the federal ’60s Scoop settlement; accusations of cultural appropriation at a Saskatoon folk festival — those are the array of news stories this year giving rise to the series’ title: A State of Race.
Another of those headline-stealing stories was about “It’s Okay To Be White” notes that surfaced in downtown Saskatoon and on office doors and walls at the University of Regina (U of R) — the same campus that this month received an Eagle Staff, a symbol of peace and respect.
In a recent interview with Leader-Post reporter Austin Davis, U of R president Vianne Timmons described the notes as strategically placed to provoke controversy, including one glued to the door of the Office of Indigenization. Her initial reaction was to quietly order their removal. But she changed her mind after consulting with faculty, who advised her: “Sometimes being silent is a statement.” So she wasn’t quiet.
“I got a lot of negative emails and letters because I went public and said we were removing them and why,” she said. “It is absolutely all right to be white,” she said. “And it’s all right to be First Nations. And it’s all right to be a black Canadian. Of course, it’s all right. But that wasn’t what it was saying,” said Timmons, describing the tone and placement as “insidious and malicious.”
While Timmons chose to be vocal, others approached for interviews for this series opted for silence. Revisiting some of these issues is uncomfortable — but also an opportunity for education and introspection with an eye to narrowing the gap. In the second part of our series, appearing Saturday, Ashley Martin explores the evolution in Indigenizing classrooms. She dropped in on a Regina class where student Carter Coghill, 13, told her, “If we’re not talking about it, then nothing’s going to change.” Look for part three on Boxing
Day, when Brandon Harder delves into commemorative monuments, named for leaders whose legacies revered decades ago are now reviled through today’s lens.
In part four of our series, Heather Polischuk examines if the call from some rural landowners for increased policing is based solely on heightened fears of crime generally, or if racism is also at play. She also looks at steps to make both sides feel safer while respecting their concerns.
“Lots of racism comes from fear, and you know that fear that somebody’s going to take something from you or they feel threatened,” Bev Poitras told her. In part five, Austin Davis explores protests that sparked questions around free speech, hate speech, dissent and backlash. “Reconciliation will never happen on Twitter,” one author told him.
On Dec. 29, Arthur White-Crummey brings part six, looking at how sport has the power to both divide and build bridges. In the words of Brandon Brooks, coach of an inner-city football team, “We gotta sell them on the idea that no matter where you’re from, no matter what colour, if you want to win games, if you want to succeed at this sport ... we gotta become one.” A State of Race concludes Dec. 30 with Jennifer Ackerman’s interview with Ryan Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, who says reconciliation must move beyond tokenism to structural reform and the elimination of prejudice and structural inequality if it is to achieve its goal: “The creation of a respectful and just society.”
Gwenda Yuzicappi was the focus of another story this year, about a bronze sculpture of her daughter. Once a powwow fancy dancer, Amber Redman is depicted moving in dance on a cloud, her shawl spread like the wings of an eagle. Some 300 people, from varying walks of life, gathered on a warm spring day outside Saskatoon’s police headquarters to watch the unveiling.
Saskatchewan is still called Mississippi North. And so (racism is) alive and well. It’s in the systems. It’s in the economic development. It’s in our businesses. It’s all over.”
BEV POITRAS, director of justice with File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council
I’m from the (U.S.) South and nothing embarrasses me more than seeing what’s going on in my country... The one thing I can say about Canada is, Canada’s trying.
BRANDON BROOKS, coach of North Central Lakers football team
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is calling for calls to action; they’re not calling for calls for talking.
ELDER NOEL STARBLANKET
When an Indigenous child walks into a
school named Sir John A. Macdonald School, and perhaps knowing full well that the person for whom the school (is named) really wanted to eliminate him and his parents and his grandparents
from this country, is that a safe place for learning?
RYAN MORAN
Not one single thing of our past history should be touched.
STEW FETTES