‘Injustice’ linked to ongoing issue of colonialism
‘Rage’ following trial outcome can fuel change, advocate says
The acquittal of Gerald Stanley tells Mylan Tootoosis the time has come for decolonization, through peaceful political means.
“As Indigenous people we live in a colonial time. We live in a time where injustice is the norm, where injustice is to be expected,” Tootoosis, a PhD student in the department of Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, told an estimated 1,000 to 1,500 people at a Saskatoon rally Saturday. His areas of expertise includes Indigenous governance, decolonization and Prairie livelihood and populations, water security and Indigenous sustainability.
The crowd, which included an equal number of non-Indigenous people, had come to the Court of Queen’s Bench calling for justice for Colten Boushie, the 22-yearold Cree man who was shot to death in 2016 by the farmer who was found not guilty after saying his gun “just went off.”
“When Colten was shot there was a lot of fear in the Battlefords area because we know this story... There was real fear there, a fear all too familiar to us throughout the ages,” Tootoosis said.
“Now is the time to flip the book to a new chapter and embrace the rage that is evident all across Canada today, to feel it fully... Embrace it and welcome it and use it to fuel our decolonization,” he said.
“I believe in peace and diplomacy and I believe in healthy confrontation to organize and mobilize against the systems that oppress us,” he said in an interview Sunday.
“Canada operates under a colonial system. In this case we’re seeing the result of that,” he said.
“When Trudeau says nation to nation, they don’t mean that. They mean the ongoing assimilation of Indigenous political consciousness into a Canadian framework, to exist specifically under Canada, under the province.
“When Canada talks about reconciliation they mean colonial control, bringing in Indigenous people to exist under the Canadian flag... (as if to say) ‘We’re here. You’re under us. Deal with it.’
“Decolonization is moving away from that and going back to, ‘No. You’re visitors on our territory. We have our own nations. We have our own political practices. We have rights to land, to establish our own economies, our own ways of life.’” he said.
Tootoosis wants nothing less than true nation-to-nation agreements based on the bedrock of the treaties, in which Indigenous people sit equal to Ottawa and design political, economic and land-based projects.
In the Stanley case, “We’re seeing colonialism do what it’s designed to do, oppress and marginalize Indigenous people and ultimately, erase us through the legal system and settler colonialism,” he said.
“We need access to our own legal systems, our own legal consciousness, to be recognized, to have a space for ourselves. In nationhood models, the legal system is a really big part of that.
“As Indigenous people, we’re capable of a political, legal and economic project in modernity that really solidifies what our ancestors felt by a nation-to-nation agreement.”
Back at Saturday’s rally, Tootoosis called on the people to remember the “faith and prayers of our ancestors.”
“They surround us here today. I know you feel it. I know it’s speaking to you. The vibration is there.”
“And to my settler kinfolk: Do not fear the truth ... change is coming and it’s going to be a beautiful day. Do not fear that truth.