SASKATOON – Aboriginal residents in Saskatchewan are almost five times more likely to be homicide victims than non-aboriginals, according to a recent national report.
Statistics Canada released a report Tuesday, highlighting the trend. In 2014, Saskatchewan had 24 homicide victims, 12 of whom were aboriginal. When calculated per 100,000 residents, the aboriginal homicide victim rate was 6.81, compared to 1.32 for non-aboriginals.
“It is scary, you know, there’s no other word that I can really attach to it other than that,” said Cory Alexson, an aboriginal man who has lived in Saskatoon for roughly 26 years.
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“You don’t like to think about it, it’s like, don’t think negative, don’t think like that, but it’s not thinking negative, its reality,” said Heidi Gravelle, director of the White Buffalo Youth Lodge.
Gravelle is one member of Saskatoon’s First Nation’s community who says she’s working to reverse the trend. The lodge offers a number of programs that are based on strengthening cultural identity and aimed at young aboriginals
“We want to start young, we want to get in there and make a difference sooner rather than later,” said Gravelle, during an interview at the lodge’s 20th Street location.
“It’s a safe environment, it’s open to everybody, everybody’s accepted and we want them to embrace that.”
The factors that led to the discrepancy in homicide victim rate are about more than just violence, according to University of Saskatchewan indigenous professor Robert Henry.
“With the idea of the street gangs, we continuously want to place them as the cause of all the turmoil that’s happening in the urban cores and everything else and there’s so many other factors going on,” said Henry, who studies indigenous streets gangs.
The history of colonialism and residential schools, among other factors, are in part responsible for the victim rate highlighted in the Statistics Canada report, according to Henry. He said acting on recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an example of a step society can take to tackle the problem.
“The reality is, is that the past has shaped our present and it’s going to shape the future so we need to understand the past,” said Henry.
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