Talk:Police Brutality Against Indigenous Youth

Hello, I really enjoyed reading your page, it was very informative and a good refresher on issues with Indigenous youth and their relationship with the colonial state. I fond it interesting that you didn't mention or commit a subheading to Tina Fountaine or Colten Boushie; both very relevant and important miscarriages of justice that have recently plagued the Indigenous community. These are Indigenous youth that have started a wave of community, and political activism and I think that with such a heavy and intense subject, including these young ones and the activism that their injustices has stirred up would put a more positive spin on a really dark subject. Thank you for your critical analysis!

This article is real important and I'm glad you wrote it! I appreciate your division of the page into small readable chunks, it made it nice and readable at least for me.

I was wondering if perhaps there was an opportunity here to connect this article to the larger pattern of colonial violence against indigenous women and girls particularly the recent inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. I think this inquiry although not specifically youth focused, echoes a lot of what you are saying in a broader scale. Particular the idea of accountability, not just of the police, but of the government and settlers in general for the actions taken by the police.

And I did want to bring up that it would be sweet if you started your headings from the biggest heading (h2) instead of the second biggest (h3). Screen readers software likes if you use headings in a nice sequence and don't jump to smaller ones. It also makes the page look more wiki-like which is an added bonus.

Hi Noah,

Yes, much of my points pertain to Indigenous who are not youth, and MMIW is a large part of that. I'll add another section relating this to the pattern of colonial violence in Canada. Also, thanks for bringing my formatting error to my attention- it does look more "wiki-like" now :)

Hi Khadija, great Wiki page on a really important topic. In regard to your discussion of cross-gender searches, I found it interesting to consider the policies that govern such searches and how they may discriminate against individuals who are gender non-conforming. Perhaps this interaction between gender identity and indigeneity is another aspect of intersectionality that you may want to consider.

Best,

Talia

Hi Talia,

That's a very great point- gov't policies are still very binary and thus exclusive to non-gender conforming individuals. This intersection is very relevant to our class readings and how this rigid gender binary is also more of a Western construct. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll be sure to try and tackle it in my edits.

This is an excellent topic choice that I chose to read because I would really like to know more about. When you say “Male police officers have also been reported to sexually harass Indigenous girls” is there a citation for this? You go on to discuss some cases later in your wiki page, but I would just like some clarification towards the beginning since it is a reality I knew very little about. I think bringing awareness to this topic is such an important addition to this page, keep up the good work!

Hi Alexandra,

That intro sentence was a summary of section 2: Sexual harrasment agaisnt Indigenous girls. The citations are under that section, but I should have added them to the intro too, thanks for pointing it out!

Hello,

I found your wiki page quite informative and eye-opening while reading the numerous accounts of police misconduct and overtly police brutality towards Indigenous youth, and in specific, Indigenous girls. I have never heard of the Starlight Tours to which you refer to in your wiki page therefore I thank you for opening up my eyes to the devastation that exists in Indigenous communities and that Indigenous people have to sadly face on a daily basis with very little support. As mentioned by a previous student, it would be interesting for you to include some statistics on how Indigenous people make up a small portion of Saskatchewan, or Canada, yet they are of almost the most prevalent race to be in custody by police.

This is a really good write-up on an important topic. It was easy to follow and really showed the discrimination that Indigenous youth encounter in relation to the state and the police. If you could find more statistics about Indigenous overrepresentation in terms of arrests and incarcerations that would add further support. It would also be interesting to learn a little more about the Neil Stonechild incident.

Hi Khadija,

Great topic. I have been learning more about the way white society in Canada have been treating or mistreating First Nations people. One of major impacts of this systemic discrimination/racism has been the long history of Indigenous prisoners over-represented in Cdn prisons. One source by Malakieh for Statistics Canada gives a lot of grim statistics about this topic. For instance, even though Indigenous people make up only 4.1% of Canada's adult population, yet in both provincial and federal prisons, Indigenous adults make up 27-28% of the prison population. In Saskatchewan, the Starlight tours you mentioned are not really surprising because racism against First Nations is very high in that province. First Nations make up 15% of Sask. population but 76% of Sask. prison population is Indigenous. They need to prosecute more racist police officers who are so willing to risk indigenous lives by dropping them off far from home in the middle of a snow storm. They obviously don't care if the person lives or dies.

Malakieh, J. (2018). Adult and youth correctional statistics in Canada, 2016/2017. Statistics Canada. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/85-002-x/2018001/article/54972-eng.pdf?st=1-R_cHs-

Sorry, forgot to post the reference from Statistics Canada on Indigenous over-representation in Cdn prisons.