‘You can be part of the solution’
Slain Métis hunters’ families urge mayors to confront racism
Family members of two Métis hunters who were killed on a rural road in eastern Alberta have written to local mayors, urging them to face the racism in their respective communities.
The two men slain in late March, Jacob Sansom and Morris Cardinal, had bagged a moose before travelling to a nearby village to drop meat off for a family member there, according to their relatives. Police allege that a confrontation at an intersection just north of the village of Glendon, Alta., led another man to shoot Cardinal and Sansom dead. Glendon resident Anthony Michael Bilodeau and his father, Roger Bilodeau, have since been charged with second-degree murder.
Many speculated that there was a racial motivation behind the killings, but police have said they don’t believe that. Sansom knew at least one of the men now charged in his death. The Star recently spent a month investigating the killings and the public conversation they have sparked.
The two letters signed by five family members of the victims request sweeping changes: the banning of racist symbols, such as the Confederate flag, “intentional relationships” with surrounding First Nations and Métis communities, for the mayors to hold conversations about racism and violence in the area, develop anti-racism policies, and start work on more diverse town council representation.
The two letters are addressed to Mayor Laura Papirny of Glendon and Mayor Gene Sobolewski of Bonnyville.
Glendon is a tiny village about 30 minutes to the west of Bonnyville, a town of 6,000.
“As previous members of the Bonnyville community, we can speak firsthand of racist experiences that forced us to leave the town out of fear for our safety,” says the letter, signed by Sansom’s mother, brother, wife, sister and a cousin.
“You can be part of the solution.”
The family has called on both mayors to address “racial violence” that’s “perpetrated to Indigenous Peoples structurally and individually.”
“Intergenerational racism is a deep-rooted issue in many rural communities that began with the forced removal of Indigenous Peoples from sovereign homelands, reducing hunting and self-determining ways of life to small segments of living space called reservations,” the letter states.
In the letter, the family invites both mayors to attend a peaceful demonstration planned for the middle of this month.