HOW NOT TO TREAT A DEATH

The lessons of Annie Pootoogook

My heart goes out to the friends and family of Annie Pootoogook, who are in the midst of mourning her loss. Annie was an incredibly talented individual whose works enriched Canada and her passing on Sept. 19 leaves a void in our hearts and our community. Annie was a proud Inuk and Canadian Inuit are proud of her. Annie had her own unique story and she deserves empathy, respect, and justice.

An Ottawa police officer appears to think differently, and publicly shared his racist views about Inuit and other Indigenous peoples in online comments related to a story about Annie’s passing. He wrote that “much of the aboriginal population in Canada is just satisfied being alcohol or drug abusers, living in poor conditions etc … they have to have the will to change, it’s not society’s fault.” In a separate comment, he dismissed the possibility that Annie’s death was suspicious because she is an Indigenous person. He made these comments prior to a police investigation that has since concluded the opposite.

It is disturbing that racist comments against Inuit and Indigenous people are so accepted in society that an individual who is charged with protecting and serving all of Ottawa’s citizens, regardless of their race, class and gender, can make the above statements and face no repercussions.

What happens in 2016 when a police officer makes it explicitly clear that he believes Indigenous Canadians are a racially inferior subset of the population and speculates that we are to blame for our own deaths? In a CBC interview on Sept. 29, Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau gave us these answers: He refused to call the comments racist, stated that the officer had not been immediately disciplined, and attempted to rebrand despicable racist comments as an individual bias.

Chief Bordeleau went so far as to say, “I have no evidence to indicate that we have racist officers.” This shameful, clumsy endorsement of racist behaviour by his subordinate has dangerous implications for marginalized members of the population, such as Inuit.

The comments, and Bordeleau’s response, come two months after the launch of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Inuit and other Indigenous women who have given testimony about this issue across the country have made it clear that discrimination within law enforcement plays a significant role in cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls that, too often, are not properly investigated.

Chief Bordeleau’s attempt to gloss over the real-life implications for Indigenous peoples of having an outwardly racist police officer serving the city of Ottawa comes at a time when Canada has committed itself to a path of reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians. This is unacceptable.

Inuit, like all citizens in Canada, are equal before and under the law under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That document only means something when all Canadians have confidence in those who are charged with upholding it.

If reconciliation means anything to Ottawa, then we must not accept hatred and racism from our institutions.

A woman has died, and she deserves respect, dignity, and justice. It is up to all of us to ensure we show her family, our city and all of Canada that we will do everything necessary to honour her.

Annie was an incredibly talented individual whose worked enriched Canada and her passing … leaves a void in our hearts and our community.