Jen Gerson | November 13, 2014
The assault on Rinelle Harper must become a watershed moment, changing how governments and aboriginal communities deal with violence against women, community leaders and family members said Thursday.
There’s so much mixed emotion out there right now. The thoughts and the prayers — and sometimes there’s rage that comes in. We just want to ask quietly that there should be no retaliation. One family is hurt already, two other families are hurt already. We’ve got to turn this around.
This is the hour that we have to call for change and shift, and the acts of violence have to stop.
A few years ago, Rinelle’s uncle [the late MP Elijah Harper] stood before the legislature and he said: ‘‘No.’’
And this is the same thing that Rinelle did in the frigid waters when she was attacked, beaten, [left] for dead, thrown in the water. She got back up from the waters, she said: ‘‘No, this isn’t going to happen anymore.’’
“This is the hour that we have to call for change,’’ said Grand Chief David Harper, who represents northern Manitoba First Nations. ‘‘The acts of violence have to stop.”
Rinelle, 16, was beaten and dumped into the icy waters of the Assiniboine River last weekend. Two young men have been charged with attacking her, as well as another 23-year-old victim that same night.
Coming amid calls for an inquiry into the more than 1,100 aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing over the past few decades, Ms. Harper’s case has proven to be particularly poignant in Winnipeg. Fears are still fresh over the murder of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, found dead in the Red River in August.
On Thursday, several members of Ms. Harper’s family convened to speak to the media, to thank members of the public for their interest in the case, and to ask them to demand change.
“It is in each and every one of us, it is our responsibility, to make that change,’’ Mr. Harper said.
“I urge the Justice Minister, I urge the Premier, I urge the Mayor, I urge the councilors of the city to sit down with the First Nations. Those things are very rare here in Canada.” (Brian Bowman, who was elected Winnipeg Mayor this month, is Métis.)
Mr. Harper also noted that a Special Chiefs Assembly of the Assembly of First Nations was scheduled to meet in Winnipeg in early December; the gathering should be a focus for these issues, he said.
Rinelle Harper’s family said that the attacks on young women were particularly worrisome to members of First Nations communities like theirs who frequently send their children to school in Winnipeg.
Police released Rinelle’s name with her family’s permission in a rare bid to encourage the public to come forward with clues.
Her mother, Julie Harper, said the teenager is unaware of the amount of attention her attack had received — the family has received notes of support from around the world. Mr. Harper even alluded to a phone call from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie.
Police said Rinelle had been out with friends last Friday night, but became separated from them. She had been walking downtown around midnight when two men approached her.
They walked to the banks of the river, where Rinelle was attacked under a bridge.
She was left in the river and drifted a short ways downstream before escaping the water. Then, wet and wearing “minimal clothing,” according to police, she was attacked again with a baseball bat.
It was seven long hours before she was discovered on Saturday morning by a passerby.
Justin Hudson, 20, and a 17-year-old male who cannot be identified, have since been charged with attempted murder, sexual assault and sexual assault with a weapon.
Mr. Hudson’s father, Brian McKay, told the CBC that he was ashamed of his son. Mr. Hudson was partially raised in the Child and Family Services system, Mr. McKay added.
“I’m ashamed of what he did, you know,” he told the CBC. “Maybe it would have been different if I raised him myself.”
Mr. McKay said what he knew of his son involved parties, drinking and gangs.
Aboriginal children are vastly overrepresented in the child welfare system in Canada, and Manitoba is no exception. According to an annual report released in November by Child and Family Services, almost 10,300 children were in foster homes, group homes or emergency shelters in the province. About 90% of the children in the care of the government were aboriginal.
Mr. Harper was asked at the news conference if it was particularly saddening that the accused in the case were aboriginal.
“We know that some of our young men and young women are involved in some of the activities …. but at the same time, we have to realize that some of these young men and some of these young women have been in the system of going from foster care to foster are to foster care and there’s no stability,” Mr. Harper said.
Mr. Harper called on the community not to retaliate for Rinelle’s sake.
‘‘One family is hurt already, two other families are hurt already,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve got to turn this around.’’
National Post
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
While Society should be outraged at the assaults against Rinelle there is an almost taboo on the subject of Female violence towards Fathers.
Across Canada, the Taboo is not just a Tabboo, its an Official Policy of Promoting Violence against children and Fathers by women.
Any Father who reports domestic violence against children or himself is more than likely to have his children taken from his care and given to a female perpertrator of violence towards children and Fathers.
You won't read about these cases because Canada places a censorship ban on such cases, Police officers like the low life Det. Peter Van Der Zander actually Fabricate Evidence to NOT charge violent women. His Superior Officers, Promote the bastard.
In Ottawa the Ontario Superior Court Judges are largely composed of Former Lawyers for Ontario's largest Criminal Organization, The Children's Aid Societies of Ontario, where their primary goal is to provide Free Legal Services for Female Abusers of children and Fathers.
Its a culture of Hatred towards male parents, it provides every Violent Female with a "Free Pass" to gain custody of children the moment any father calls police.
Now, homes across Canada rarely have any single parent fathers, 99% of all custody decisions result in Mothers getting custody and increasingly, all they have to do is habitually assault the fathers and the children until he calls the police and, our Corrupt, Unaccountable, Father Hating Judiciary simply do anything and everything to ensure he never ever sees the children again who grow up in violent home to be abused by the most violent women in Canada.
We now have a Radical Feminist Country that applies Male Sharia Law and which
applies Gender Cleansing.
Welcome to the Feminist Caliphate, Canada.
Ottawa Mens Centre