Statement on the violent attempted arrest in the Freshco Parking lot

Seeing the video of the violent attempted arrest of an Indigenous woman in a parking lot right here in our City made me angry.

This violence needs to stop.

We can’t ignore as a community that not everyone would have been treated this way.

Our city has been coming to terms with the reality of our history and ongoing impacts of violence against women, and violence against Indigenous women.

We have also been coming face to face with the reality that systemic racism, and profiling of people in stores and institutions in our community, carries on in large and small ways.

The video of this arrest highlighted this. I hear too often from people who are Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour that they regularly face discrimination, profiling and violence.

It has a real impact on peoples lives.

Those of us who don’t experience this need to listen and hear directly from people who do.

We have work to do to address the training and accountability of security guards, the racial profiling of people in stores and institutions, to address the hard truths of the impacts of a colonial relationship, and to build a way forward where we see each other as relatives and where everyone has opportunity here.

I am committed to this work, I have talked with Tribal Chief about this arrest and the need to work together to put an end to this. I will keep working with leaders throughout the community towards these goals. We can only be successful by doing it together as a community.