Indigenous woman recounts incident of racist threats on remote stretch of B.C. highway | 24CA News
WARNING: This story incorporates distressing particulars.
A Sylix girl who was the sufferer of a daunting, threatening incident on a distant stretch of B.C. freeway final week is talking out in regards to the too-common threats confronted by Indigenous ladies and ladies.
Rhonda Ned works for the Trans Mountain Pipeline enlargement mission as a medic close to Jasper, Alta., simply throughout the B.C. border.
Her workdays are spent stationed on mountainous, distant stretches of freeway in a truck-mounted camper that serves as a cell medical station. She tends to accidents at a number of spread-out worksites or to passing drivers. She works alone.
While on obligation on Friday simply earlier than 6:15 p.m. MT, a big, lifted pickup truck pulled up behind her car and parked on the B.C. facet.
“As a medic, my first thought is, somebody needs help … But this particular vehicle pulled right up, almost touched the back of my vehicle with his high beams on,” Ned mentioned in an interview.
“That’s when my intuition was going off knowing something was wrong.”
She locked her doorways. Two males carrying flashlights bought out of the truck and walked to her driver and passenger-side doorways.
She mentioned they began banging on her doorways and home windows, swearing at her and demanding she get out of the car.
They referred to as her a racial slur focusing on Indigenous ladies and threatened so as to add her to the listing of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“They wanted to hurt me,” Ned mentioned. “And my gut was turning that if they got in, I wouldn’t be here. Or I would be really, really hurt.”
Ned had a satellite tv for pc telephone and a two-way radio to succeed in her co-workers. She was capable of name for assist. She mentioned the lads drove off earlier than anybody got here.
RCMP are investigating the incident.
Ned says her hope is that sharing her story will draw consideration to the threats Indigenous ladies, ladies and Two-Spirit individuals face.
“For so many years it’s been brushed aside and not talked about,” she mentioned.
“We paint this picture of joy and happiness and [that] Canada’s loving and peaceful. However, there’s this dark side that people need to know about, people need to talk about.”
Urges others to be vigilant
Mounties confirmed their investigation of the incident however wouldn’t say a lot else.
“The investigation is ongoing but there are no details that can be released publicly at this time,” Staff Sgt. Kris Clark wrote in an e mail.
“There is currently no information to suggest that this is a recurring issue or that there is any ongoing risk to the public.”
Trans Mountain deferred largely to police when requested to remark.
“Ms. Ned followed procedure by submitting a report to the RCMP,” a spokesperson wrote. “Trans Mountain’s first priority is the safety of its workers and the communities we operate in. We take all incidents of this nature very seriously.”
Ned says because the incident, insurance policies at her worksite have modified and he or she and different medics now not work alone.
She says she understands nobody might ever be arrested.
She could not see the licence plate or the make of the car the lads have been in due to snowy climate.
She mentioned one man was sporting a ski masks and the opposite had his hood pulled up over his head, and all she might see was him having a brief beard.
‘Strength and energy’
In the times after the incident, Ned spoke to Kukpi7 Judy Wilson of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, a long-time advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women for assist.
Wilson says the ordeal Ned went by way of is all too widespread — they usually typically aren’t taken critically.
“They fall through the cracks,” Wilson mentioned. “So I think it’s well worth sharing this incident. So that might serve to warn other women and girls and Two-Spirit [people].”
Ned mentioned she additionally needs victims of crimes like this to know they don’t seem to be alone.
“I want to say something,” Ned mentioned, “and give them strength and power enough to say something.”
