Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said the video of the attempted violent arrest of an Indigenous woman accused of shoplifting at FreshCo grocery store made him angry.
“Our city has been coming to terms with the reality of our history and ongoing impacts of violence against women, and violence against Indigenous women,” stated Clark Saturday. “We have also been coming face to face with the reality that systemic racism, and profiling of people in stores and institutions in our community, carries on in large and small ways.”
Police allege the incident took place Wednesday afternoon at 33rd and Avenue C.
In the nine-minute video the woman screamed for the security guard to get off of her and that the receipt for items was thrown in the trash. Bystanders also pleaded to allow police to handle the matter.
“The video of this arrest highlighted this. I hear too often from people who are Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour that they regularly face discrimination, profiling and violence,” explained Clark. “We have work to do to address the training and accountability of security guards, the racial profiling of people in stores and institutions, to address the hard truths of the impacts of a colonial relationship, and to build a way forward where we see each other as relatives and where everyone has opportunity here.”
The woman is facing theft and assault charges. Global News reports that the woman is from Deschambault Lake and that the Saskatoon Tribal Council has obtained a lawyer to represent her free of charge.
“I saw a brief clip of it. Equally disgusted as any other video of the same nature that seems to pop up far too often,” said Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller Friday.
The grocery store took to Facebook to address the incident, claiming it has ended its relationship with the security company. “We have decided to end our relationship with our third-party security vendor as the behaviour shown on April 14th outside our store is not tolerated or a representation of our values. We continue to cooperate with officials as this incident is currently under investigation.”
Saskatoon Police said it is still investigating the incident.