Canadian media hits snooze

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Human rights activists are saying that, once again, the national press missed an opportunity to take a close look at a problem that is national in scope and of fundamental importance to the way Canadians see themselves.

Rick Dedam handed it to the CBC on a silver platter and the CBC dropped it. Nobody else picked it up.

Dedam is the Mi'kmaq man whose Hitachi 2900A video camera captured the now infamous incident where a Department of Fisheries and Oceans boat rammed a much smaller Mi'kmaq fishing boat with such force that those in the boat had to jump for their lives. Burnt Church Chief Wilbur Dedam later demanded that the DFO officers on the boat be charged with attempted murder. So far, no action has been taken in that regard.

But the images on the videotape are so graphic that many Native observers are comparing it to the Rodney King video; amateur video that showed Los Angeles police officers savagely beating a black man. That video caused a full-scale media storm across the United States and around the world.

There was no such storm in the Canadian media, although a few faint voices were heard. In similar situations in the past, anti-racism workers have pointed to a national case of denial when it comes to facing up to virulent racism in Canada.

Dedam, however, has seen his video make a difference in several individuals, even if the national press or other groups haven't seized on it.

"Yeah, that was mine," Dedam said, brandishing his camera as he stood outside Nenooe Esgol (school) on the Burnt Church waterfront where the Atlantic chiefs converged to show their support for Burnt Church on Sept. 8. "Some people tell me that that piece of footage woke up a nation. I'm kind of proud of that."

Dedam said he was awakened early one morning and told there was trouble on the waters. He was able to record the incident and then he turned his video over to CBC-TV news. Later, when he saw the tape on the air, he saw that editors had inverted the order of the incidents on the tape and made it look like the Mi'kmaq fishers had started the confrontation by throwing rocks at the DFO boat. Dedam angrily demanded that the error be corrected and, after one newscast, it was.

On Sept. 7, as lawyers argued the Indian Brook First Nation's request for a Federal Court injunction against DFO enforcement measures taken against Native fishers, observers outside the law courts in downtown Halifax noticed a well-dressed non-Native woman emerge from the court building. She looked in the direction of several demonstrators who had attached the Warrior flag to a light pole and were drumming, and then she approached the demonstrators. There were a few tense moments as the demonstrators prepared for a confrontation.

"I've never done this before," the woman said, looking very uncomfortable. "But what I saw on TV the other night mortified me. I cried. I just felt I had to stop and say something. That wasn't right."

Noel Bernard, a band councillor for the Wagmatcook First Nation near Baddeck, N.S., is a former RCMP officer. He said he appreciated the woman's gesture but found it unusual and surprising. His experience has made him believe the racial tensions caused by stereotypes of Native people have a dehumanizing effect that prevent non-Native people from reaching out as that woman did.

"They forget we've got feelings, too," he said.

Far away in Alberta, a weekly newspaper editorial summed up the thoughts of a lot of Canadians who saw the tape and who may never have given Aboriginal rights issues any serious thought before.

Joan Plaxton, writing in the Valley News, conceded that extraordinary measures have to be taken in explosive situations.

"Extraordinary measures does not mean unreasonable force," she wrote. "[T]he ramming of a boat by a larger vessel is tantamount to premeditated murder. The incident did not appear to be an error in judgment according to eyewitness accounts and video evidence. By resorting to this kind of violenc, the DFO gives Canada a black eye in the community. We have rightly earned the reputation of being peacekeepers. Will we be looked at in the same light now?"

National Chief Matthew Coon Come told the Policy Conference of Atlantic Chiefs what he thought of the incident when he addressed them at the Halifax Sheraton Hotel on Sept. 6.

"This is not solely about fish. This is about life, and the land and resources that support our existence and well-being. This is about Canada's persistent policy of dispossession of our lands and resources. This is about a repressive government that has finally showed its true face to the world in the past few weeks," he said. "This is Canada's hidden character. . . . Mr. Dhaliwal, you are responsible for attempts to harm or perhaps even murder our people. Thank God that no one was killed. Your officials tried. That is clear for everyone to see. Nothing could be more obvious-running over our boats, attacking people in the water, sinking boats. What a wanton and sickening disregard for life your troops have shown."

DFO officials said, immediately after the incident, that an investigation would be conducted. The spokesperson said it was possible there was a mechanical problem with the boat or some other explanation.