Violence rooted in racism and hatred continues in this province. It was again shown in a video shared on social media this week, when an Indigenous man was attacked in the backyard of his friend’s house, his young daughter in the nearby truck.

The friend is Office of the Treaty Commissioner Speaker Bureau member lawyer Eleanore Sunchild, who circulated the footage and shared it with RCMP. We are grateful she had those cameras to catch on video what often goes ignored.

According to RCMP one man has been charged with assault and the investigation is continuing.

We struggled with this statement, it's so frustrating, we make the same statements over and over and it can feel like nothing changes. 

This isn’t enough. We need to do more to prevent this kind of violence and to make our cities and towns safe for all. Our communities need to come together. It is only by calling out racism and by acting to stop the racist actions of others that we can start to work towards reconciliation. We need a society where no Indigenous person will have to worry about what road they stop on, what street or neighborhood they are in, or if they’re going to be accused because of how they look and who they are. If this incident hadn’t happened around our advocate, who knows what to do and who has support, would this have gone unnoticed and not talked about?

We know that these incidents of violence and hate cause further division and fear. It shows the ugliness of racism. There must be zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in any form. No child should have to witness their parent being assaulted, by someone who think they have a right.

Have difficult conversations, be an ally, educate yourself and those around you, don’t ignore the discriminatory words and actions of others, and be a good human being.

We live in times that are better than what our parents and grandparents went through, but we will keep seeing these acts of violence again and again unless we do the work now that will make a better future for our children and grandchildren. What are we leaving them? Do we want it to be a land of hate and violence or a legacy that reflects how hard we worked for generations to make their own land safe for them to walk on?