First Nations chief's rape "wish" against Frances Widdowson condemned
MLA Tara Armstrong presses B.C. government to condemn remarks by Esk’etemc Chief Charlene Belleau targeting academic Frances Widdowson.
Author: Melanie Bennet
A heated exchange broke out in the British Columbia legislature after MLA Tara Armstrong cited video footage of a chief calling for sexual violence against a university professor.
Armstrong told the legislature that a video had surfaced showing Chief Charlene Belleau, a member of the Esk’etemc First Nation, comments about rape directed towards academic and Indigenous issues author, Frances Widdowson.
“I wish that our people could grab you, drag you over to the Kamloops Residential School, put you into the basement, speak our language to you, beat you, rape you, hurt you, and maybe you’d understand,” Armstrong quoted Belleau as saying.
Armstrong then asked whether Premier David Eby agreed “that reconciliation should include Canadians getting beaten and raped” or whether he would “unequivocally denounce” what she called Belleau’s “vile and inexcusable threats.”
NDP Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation Spencer Chandra Herbert did not directly address the quoted remarks in his response.
“I think I know what the member is trying to do here. And that’s to further divide us over an issue which is very emotional,” he said, referencing the history of residential schools and children “taken away from their homes” who “were not allowed to return.”
“I’m not sure exactly what the member is referring to,” he added. “But I do know what she’s tried to do in the past, insisting that the bodies of children who died at residential schools should be dug up. Something that you would never insist in any other place in the world where the Holocaust or genocides occurred. That’s not how we do these things.”
Armstrong responded by clarifying she was referring to “one individual, not a group of people.”
“Chief Charlene Belleau… was openly bragging about uttering threats of sexual violence against a highly respected university professor,” she said.
Armstrong told the legislature that Belleau had received the British Columbia Reconciliation Award and the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the latter “on the nomination of our very own Premier,” and asked whether the Premier would call for those honours to be revoked.
Attorney General Niki Sharma rejected the line of questioning.
“This is a continuation of really quite terrible questions from this member about denying residential schools,” Sharma said, adding that Armstrong’s framing was “offensive in so many ways.”
“We cannot forget that the reason those two members are in the house right now is because of the party opposite. Because of those members that included that in their tent. And we have to answer to this stuff over and over again and it does harm to people,” she said.
The exchange ended without a direct response from the government on whether it would condemn the remarks attributed to Belleau or review her awards.
Armstrong told Juno News that “if the NDP will look the other way when an indigenous chief explicitly says she wants a university professor to be abducted, beaten, and raped, then the obvious question is this: will they look the other way if some deranged person actually carries out those wishes?”
She said that condemning threats “shouldn’t be a partisan issue” and that every elected leader should “condemn threats of sexual violence. No excuses. No exceptions.”
Widdowson has a different view. She told Juno News in an email that “Belleau’s comments were deplorable and reflect a double standard in the discourse.”
She said that Belleau’s comments were “not a threat” and that “she should have the freedom to express such horrible sentiments.”
For Widdowson, the real problem is UBC. “They have a duty to repair the damage and host an event on the unmarked graves,” she said offering that she and Chief Aaron Pete “, I would be happy to do this.”
MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert and Attorney General Niki Sharma did not respond to a request for comment.