Stunned, said Kamao Cappo on Treaty 6 flag raising at Canadian Tire

Updated March 11: 

Josh Littlechild of Ermineskine First Nation has sent the following video to Windspeaker.com. It shows the speech of Canadian Tire Wataskiwin owner Martin Leclercq at the Treaty 6 flag raising ceremony on March 8. 

In it Leclercq acknowledges the company is conducting business on Treaty 6 territory, “and without this historic agreement between the settlers and the Aboriginal people we would not likely be here today.”

He said both Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in the territory are beneficiaries of Treaty 6.

“It is very important to us as treaty people to respect this land on which we stand and to respect the relationship with the First Nation people...” promoting reconciliation and unity, Leclercq said, adding that  it was important to ensure First Nations people feel welcome at  Canadian Tire Wetaskiwin.

He said the store was also committed to providing equitable access to jobs and training to Indigenous people,  and will work to encourage other businesses in the area to follow those steps.

By Dustin McGladrey of CFWE-FM
Windspeaker.com Contributor

Is it window dressing or an indication of a true change of corporate behavior? The Canadian Tire store in Wetaskiwin, Alta. raised the Treaty 6 flag March 8.

“This event is a first of its kind as a Canadian corporate business will be flying the Treaty No. 6 territory flag along with its Canadian and Alberta flag,” reads the invitation to the flag raising ceremony.

Treaty 6 Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild and Ermineskine representative Josh Littlechild attended.

Windspeaker.com reached out to Kamao Cappo for his reaction to the event. Readers will remember Cappo from an incident at a Canadian Tire store in Regina, where he was accused of stealing and forcibly removed from the establishment by an employee.

Related story: http://www.windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/listen-kamao-cappo-says-traditional-law-tells-us-not-to-retaliate/

The powerful video he took of the incident drew an angry response on social media with vows of a boycott of all Canadian Tire stores across Canada.

He was shocked to hear of the flag raising, which many might perceive as an endorsement of Canadian Tire by the Treaty 6 leadership.

“At first I was stunned,” said Cappo, upon hearing of the ceremony. “And then I’m like, ‘Wow.’

“I want to believe it. I want to feel really good and say ‘oh, great. There’s somebody who’s going out on a limb’, and really doing something to establish something that I really think should be done” that all First Nations' flags should be right alongside the Canadian flag. “They are no less important than the Canadian flag,” he said.

“I want to feel really good about it… but what about the real work, the hard work of dealing with that racism within the organization.”

He said he doesn’t intend to single out Canadian Tire, but states Saskatchewan has a huge racial problem. He cites the Colten Boushie shooting there as evidence of it.

“There’s a very bad problem here. Will (Canadian Tire) do the hard work, trying to educate their staff about this. I don’t see them doing that. To me, that would be something real. This is good what they are doing, but if you are really committed to it, then do something internally.”

Cappo called yesterday’s flag-raising in Alberta window dressing.

“I haven’t seen any changes with the Indigenous community and Canadian Tire,” said Cappo. “I think there was at least two more incidents where their staff insulted…Indigenous people” in Saskatchewan. At least two were Elders, Cappo said.

The issue he had with the company remains unresolved.

“It’s been really slow… with no apologies yet.”

Within a couple of days of the incident, Cappo said, Canadian Tire did want to meet with him, but Cappo said “after I seen them telling lies in the media, I had no desire of meeting with them at all. I was so disgusted with them.”

As for the flag raising in Alberta, Cappo said “I wish it was real. Do the internal work, then I’ll believe it’s real.”

Windspeaker.com has reached out to Josh Littlechild of Erminskine, the contact person for the event, for his perspective, and will bring that interview to our readers as soon as we can.