Dear Madame of Euro-Canadian St. Albert,
Please accept this open letter as a response to your question posed to my partner on the holiday Monday morning, May 20, at the Kingswood Pavilion:
“You’re not going to steal my dog are you?”
My partner, being a young and humble Niheyawak (Cree) man, was not sure how to take this question. I, an Otipemisiwak (Métis) woman with passing white privilege, wonders if you would have felt the need to ask had I been there, instead of inside the pavilion.
No matter the tone, this question demonstrates implicit bias – which I urge you to explore and address.
The uncanny significance of being a stone’s throw away from River Lot 56 and Poundmaker’s Lodge property – the site of the former Edmonton Residential School and its many unmarked mass graves, is not lost on us.
You are worried WE will steal YOUR dog; is it fair of us to say we are worried that YOU will steal OUR children?
We have no interest in your purebred dog.
We do, however, take interest in your privilege. The fragile affluent white cis-heteronormative patriarchy position of privilege and your insidious display of prejudice.
We were at Payhonin. Were you?
C. Felske, St. Albert
