In May, representatives of Canadian Tire and Blackbird Security participated in a C̓úx̌va, a traditional Haíɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) Nation Washing Ceremony, for Heiltsuk citizens Dawn and Richard Wilson, as part of a human rights settlement related to consumer racial profiling incidents the Wilsons experienced at the Coquitlam Canadian Tire in 2020.
The Ceremony was deeply moving. Company representatives, including the Coquitlam store owner, spoke directly to the Wilsons and apologized. Dawn Wilson blanketed the representatives, and everyone joined in a celebration dance. Many from the Heiltsuk urban community were there, and the Ceremony was covered the CBC, APTN, CTV, and the Vancouver Sun, among others.
Our firm has been privileged to act for Heiltsuk and the Wilsons, as part of Heiltsuk’s Strong as Cedar campaign to empower Indigenous people and fight systemic racism. The campaign was sparked by the egregious wrongful detention and handcuffing of two other Heiltsuk citizens, Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter, in downtown Vancouver after they tried to open a bank account with their status cards. Then, Sharif Bhamji, who is Heiltsuk and South Asian, tried to access services at a TD bank in Surrey, but the bank didn’t believe his status card was valid.
In each case, the goal was not just recognition from companies and institutions like the Vancouver Police that what had happened was wrong. The Strong as Cedar campaign is about systemic change. Our clients know they are not alone. A study that was prompted by Maxwell Johnson’s experience and commissioned by the Union of BC Indian Chiefs – They Sigh or Give You the Look: Discrimination and Status Card Usage – found that over 99% of 1,026 survey respondents reported experiencing discrimination when using their status cards.
Too often, this near universal experience goes unnoticed by society at large, and unremedied by the legal system. BC’s Human Rights Tribunal knows this is a problem. The Tribunal asked Ardith Walpetko We’dalx Walkem, KC to prepare a report to better understand why Indigenous peoples were not filing human rights complaints. That report, Expanding Our Vision: Cultural Equality & Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights, also documents “common experiences of service denial where [Indigenous respondents] were not served, or were served after others, or were followed or stopped by security guards in stores (on person jokingly called this ‘shopping while Indigenous’). In each of these instances, the discrimination and its impacts in loss of dignity and safety were very real, but likely difficult to prove. This form of discrimination has been likened to a ‘death by a thousand cuts’”. (p. 20).
There is much work to do. The BC Human Rights Tribunal is implementing the Expanding Our Vision report and provides updates on its website. In each of the Heiltsuk cases, we hope they shone more light on this pervasive, frequently hidden issue, and provided examples for how to resolve specific instances of consumer racial profiling that both compensates the individuals affected and pushes for broader change.
There are key features in how each case was resolved that are particularly important:
- No confidentiality: except for the specific monetary compensation provided for, the settlements reached are not confidential. This means the facts are public, the acknowledgement of harm done is public, and the remedies are public.
- Commitments to systemic reform: in each case, settlement included concrete commitments of policy reform, with a view to ensuring what happened is not repeated.
- Incorporation of Heiltsuk legal remedies: a Washing Ceremony is a remedy in each settlement as well. This is a crucial piece. The particularly instances of racial profiling experienced by Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter, Sharif Bhamji, and the Wilsons must be seen in its wider context, involving the legacy of cultural genocide. Canada made Indigenous peoples second class citizens, forcibly ripped Indigenous children from their families and homes, and banned Indigenous ceremonies, all with the express purpose of eliminating Indigenous peoples as peoples. But Indigenous legal traditions are still here, and they have a key role to play in resolving disputes.
A Heiltsuk Washing Ceremony, as we understand it and were honoured to witness, is about healing, forgiveness, and moving forward in a good way. After the recent Canadian Tire and Blackbird Security Ceremony, Dawn and Richard clearly expressed how much lighter they felt. Sharif Bhamji had similar feelings after TD participated in a Washing Ceremony in November.
Sadly, however, the police officers who detained and handcuffed Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter have yet to participate in a Washing Ceremony. After years of effort to get the officers to agree to come, Maxwell Johnson is now before an adjudicator under the Police Act – the Honourable Wally Oppal, OBC, KC who is reviewing the disciplinary measures imposed on the officers and considering whether to require their attendance at a Heiltsuk Washing Ceremony.
Over 10 years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission called upon Crown governments to fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) as the framework for reconciliation (Call to Action 43), and called on the corporate sector to do the same (Call to Action 92). Today, while the provincial government threatens to resile from its UNDRIP commitments and while the federal government threatens to build a crude-oil pipeline to the north coast over the strenuous objections of First Nations, it is the corporate sector that has come to table three times, taken accountability, and participated in a Heiltsuk remedy.
Powerful institutions in our society have a responsibility to respect the basic, inherent human rights of everyone, including Indigenous peoples. UNDRIP affirms those inherent Indigenous rights, which are both collective and individual. Multiple articles affirm Indigenous rights to culture: Article 12 affirms Indigenous peoples’ right to “manifest, practise, develop and teach their spiritual and religious traditions, customs and ceremonies”; Article 15 affirms Indigenous peoples “right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories and aspirations”; and Article 31 affirms Indigenous peoples’ “right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions”. Indigenous peoples also have the right to “effective remedies for all infringements of their individual and collective rights” (affirmed by Article 40).
It has been our honour to assist our clients in achieving accountability and culturally-appropriate, effective remedies in three distinct human rights cases. We hope that Maxwell Johnson too will eventually see the police officers involved respect Heiltsuk cultural and legal traditions.
Looking forward, as the Human Rights Tribunal continues to implement the Expanding our Vision Report and as all institutions in Canadian Society continue the necessary work of reconciliation, we hope these human rights settlements demonstrate what is achievable now in terms of remedies, and point towards a time when Indigenous peoples can safely bank and shop without being discriminated against, and when our legal system more fully recognizes and incorporates Indigenous legal traditions into its processes. When we respect Indigenous rights, everybody benefits.
Ruben Tillman