A group of motorcyclists traveling from Winnipeg to Vancouver is on a mission to raise awareness to a certified class-action lawsuit for Indian day school students.
Day school students were left out of the Residential school settlement package; as students did not reside at the school. In 2009, lawyer and activist Joan Jack helped to file the class-action suit.
“Just because we have been victimized doesn’t mean we’re victims. We don’t have to be victims. Yes, we’re being victimized, we’re being victimized legally but we are so not victims. For me that’s what a Treaty Freedom Rider is all about. As an Indigenous woman I’ve been victimized in my life time and most Indigenous women have been, but I’m so not a victim,” Jack said in Regina Friday during a meal break.
Treaty Freedom Rider’s began five years ago. For Derek Nepinak, former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chief the ride is about supporting those who suffered trauma at those schools.
“Just because our parents didn’t sleep in those places, doesn’t mean there weren’t harms done to them because there was,” Nepinak explained. “Also, think about our own family members who have been through that day school. The day school back home was there for a number of years.”
The riders aim to be in Vancouver Monday for the start of the Assembly of First Nation General Assembly.
(Photo Treaty 2 Grand Chief Norman Bone and Lawyer Joan Jack in Regina)