As the third wave of COVID-19 emerges, Indigenous folks who find themselves unhoused are now being threatened with violence to clear encampments, with no promise of safe, permanent housing. Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction raised a teepee on March 27, 2010 as a space for healing, community and ceremony in Allen Gardens, a gathering place for many houseless Indigenous people in the city.
In April 2019, Alberto Curamil was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. Leader of the Alianza Territorial Mapuche, Alberto could not accept because he is currently in a Chilean prison for charges widely considered fabricated. Here, Yellowhead an interview on Alberto’s incarceration and Mapuche resistance with Belén Curamil, his daughter, and Miguel Melin (spokesperson for the Alianza Territorial Mapuche).
From the very first encounter with police, contact with the criminal justice system for Indigenous people is loaded with disproportionate penalties. A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision of R v Ewert finally recognized the critical role played by Correctional Service Canada that may be unjustly keeping Indigenous peoples behind bars for longer, under far worse conditions than their non-Indigenous incarcerated counterparts.
Based in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University.