Vigil highlights state violence

As the sun began to set on Wednesday, more than 100 people gathered at Place du Canada in Montreal to commemorate the lives of six Indigenous people killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in only 11 days.

Jack Piché, 31, Hoss Lightning, 15, Tammy Bateman, 39, Jason West, 57, Danny Knife, 31, and Steven ‘Iggy’ Dedam, 34, were all killed by the RCMP from August 29 to September 8. The vigil was organized by the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM) and Resilience Montreal.

Ahkwesahsró:non Branka Bradley, who works with the NWSM, spoke to attendees at the vigil, drawing the connection between modern police violence and historical murders of Indigenous people in Canada.

“That’s our brother, that’s our sister,” she said, referring to the victims. She called upon those gathered to have more consideration and love for everyone. “I wanted to let them know that they’re surrounded in love.”

Nakuset, executive director of the NWSM, named each of the victims and offered prayers for their families.

“It’s important that we do this,” she said. “But it’s important that this stops.”

Nakuset told The Eastern Door that regular community members and allies have the power to make change. 

“Every community has the power to do this, and they should, because the more these things happen, the more pressure it is on the government,” Nakuset said.

Svens Telemaque spoke to attendees as a representative of Union United Church, the first Black church in Quebec.

Telemaque criticized the RCMP’s mission statement, singling out the phrase “to provide quality service and partnership with our communities.” He questioned how “quality service and partnership” could make sense alongside the reality of continuous loss of life rather than providing safe interventions to people in crisis.

“It doesn’t make any sense for the lives that are lost behind and their families that are grieving. It doesn’t make any sense, for those the land belongs to, for them to be suffering the most,” he argued.

Kanehsata’kehró:non Ellen Katsi’tsakwas Gabriel closed out the speeches and recognized the show of solidarity at the vigil, condemning Canada’s colonization and genocide that continues with today’s police killings.

“How do you get over surviving genocide?” Gabriel asked, “We continue to see it being repeated, we continue to see an apathetic society, that when it’s convenient for them they will take notice, and when it’s not they will go on shopping in the shopping malls.”

Gabriel argued that the government does not want to address solutions because they know the land belongs to Indigenous people and pushed listeners to pressure their leaders to hold police accountable and to stop using their money to kill people and protect human rights instead.

“Any solution must be led by Indigenous people who know what we need to protect ourselves,” Gabriel said.
The event concluded with a final song and attendees were invited to sprinkle tobacco into the fire. A long line of participants offered prayers for the victims and their families.

Attendees Tasnim Rekik and Stephanie Germain attended the vigil after following Indigenous organizations and attending rallies and vigils for several years.

“To know that those families were calling the cops for help and end up losing their lives from the same people who were supposed to be there to protect them, really struck me,” Germain explained.

“Land back for real,” Rekik added.

Gabriel told The Eastern Door that people need to be aware of the injustices happening in their own backyard. 

“It’s a broken system that doesn’t work for anybody, but particularly for Indigenous people,” she said.

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