Content Warning: death, police brutality, racism
“I don’t understand why it seems like it’s open season on Indigenous people and it’s just fine to kill us and no one’s going to complain and no one’s going to make a fuss about it.”
Na’kuset’s words echoed through Place du Canada and resonated in each of us present at the vigil on September 18th. Behind her were six posters with the faces of Jack Piché, 31 years old; Hoss Lightning-Saddleback, 15; Tammy Bateman, in her 30s; Jason West, 57; Danny Knife, 31; Steven “Iggy” Dedam, 33; all of whom were killed by police officers since August 29.
Na’kuset, executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, along with the day shelter Resilience Montreal, held a vigil to honour the lives lost, offer prayers to their families and loved ones, and denounce systematic police brutality against Indigenous people. The speakers called out the Canadian government’s complicity, saying that “injustices like these don’t have a place anymore [in our country].” As McGill begins its annual Indigenous Awareness weeks, the memorial served as a grim reminder of the ongoing abuses against Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government’s failure to ensure meaningful accountability for these crimes.
As people gathered around the fire and the speakers took their places, Bryce Morison opened the vigil by singing a sundance song in honour of the victims and to give strength to their families. Fay Desjarlais then addressed the group by talking about her 20 years working with Indigenous women, calling out the brutal realities they face on a daily basis, and then proceeded with a powerful chant. Among the speakers were also representatives of the Black community: Svens Telemanque, representative of Union United Church, and Claudette Soeurette, activist).
The vigil highlighted the importance of community building and mutual support of different anti-colonial and anti-oppression groups. Na’kuset made references to the common struggle of the Black and Indigenous communities, and the Palestinian liberation movement: “I think there’s a lot of work that the Black community and the Indigenous community can do together because we face so many of the same issues.” Ellen Gabriel, activist and artist from the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, spoke about the pattern of dehumanization these groups face and how it serves as justification for the killings: “The dehumanization of Indigenous Black people of color, and especially now, as you think of Palestine, the dehumanization of people is unacceptable.” She related this to Judith Butler’s conceptualization of grievable and ungrievable lives. Butler writes in their book Frames of War: When is Life Grievable: “An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all.”
In its 2024 report, Human Rights Watch denounced Canada’s persistent abuses against Indigenous peoples, alluding to issues of underfunding, and citing the Line 5 pipeline case. Police brutality is part of the systematic violence that Indigenous and people of colour face in Canada and in other parts of the world. Tracking (in)Justice, a Canadian law enforcement and criminal legal data and transparency project, has been accumulating data on police-involved deaths in Canada. Since 2000 they’ve established that 774 instances of police use of force involved death, and that Black and Indigenous people are overrepresented. According to their data, Indigenous people die at eight times the rate compared to white people. Additionally, Black and Indigenous people account for 27.2 per cent of the police-involved shooting deaths, when and where the race of the victim has been identified by police authorities, yet they represent around 8.7 per cent of the population in Canada.
“When I look up the RCMP and I look at their mission statement, this is what it says …] we commit to preserve the peace, uphold the law, and provide quality service in partnership with our communities. […] Quality service in partnership with our communities doesn’t look like the lives that are lost behind me,” said Svens Telemanque. He then added that “Systemic racism is not written in black and white. It’s hidden underneath policies, attitudes, beliefs, and the way that people get treated.”
As the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation approaches on September 30, as well as the 10th anniversary of the release of the findings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), activists and community leaders say change is urgently needed. “We need you, every one of you, to help us get out of this cycle of genocide that many generations continue to feel continue to feel its impacts,” concluded Ellen Gabriel.
To conclude the vigil, people formed a line and, one by one, placed tobacco in the fire while offering prayers for the lost lives and their families.
If you want to get more involved, there are volunteering opportunities organized by Resilience Montreal and the Native Women’s Shelter.