Calling Lake residents are expressing concern about the use of the fear and the damage being wrought to the hamlet’s reputation by a push to address rising property crime.
Current and former members of the Calling Lake Cottage Association attended the Municipal District of Opportunity council meeting Aug. 22 to discuss addressing property crime in the hamlet. Athabasca RCMP and Athabasca-Sturgeon-Redwater MLA Colin Piquette were also present during the delegation.
However, Calling Lake resident Athabasca Native Friendship Centre employee Charity Jardine said she was concerned by the lack of full-time, Indigenous residents at the meeting.
“If I had known that a delegation was going to present,” Jardine said in an interview. “I would have been there just to hear what they’re saying and maybe present them the other side. Or to remind them that there is a big picture that they’re missing when they do things like this.”
The Calling Lake Cottage Association declined to offer comment for this story.
During the Aug. 22 meeting, past chair of the association Kathy Stubbs said community members want help to address crime in Calling Lake.
“People in this community need some help,” Stubbs said during the meeting. “Residents are afraid in this community due to the crime wave.”
However, Jardine said stoking fear is not the answer and can have a detrimental impact on Calling Lake.
“Creating a movement to incite fear, or using fear to incite action, where the fear is based around First Nations people. People read that article and they’re not going to have an image of white people doing the crime. Immediately, people’s reactions are Native people doing the crime. This is Calling Lake,” Jardine said. “The face of the crime is going to be First Nations and that’s just unacceptable for a lot of us.”
That fear can then become associated with Indigenous people and lead to violence, Jardine said. She referenced the case of Colton Boushie, a Cree man shot and killed by a white man, Gerald Stanley, in an altercation on Stanley’s property in Saskatchewan.
“I don’t think we want to be seeing the same incidents,” Jardine said. “Those are our boys. Those are our men. We have to value them more than property. They’re people.”
However, non-Indigenous Calling Lake resident Wilf Brooks, who said he has lived in Calling Lake for over 25 years and who attended the Aug. 22 meeting, said the cottagers were trying to work in the interests of the whole community.
He added the fear people have about crime in Calling Lake is genuine and not necessarily tied to fear of Indigenous people.
“All people in our community have a concern, or most, when they leave their property. This has been for some time now,” Brooks said. “This isn’t an Indigenous-white thing. This is a community thing.”
The cottager divide
Property crime in Calling Lake has increased this year, with 87 reported break-ins as of the end of July 2018, compared to 51 in all of 2017, according to Athabasca RCMP staff Sgt. Paul Gilligan. The majority of those are at seasonal cottages, with 57 at cottages, 12 at businesses, seven at residences and 11 in the “other” category.
Jardine said there is an underlying tension that exists between the people who cottage in Calling Lake during the summer months and those who live there year round.
She said although some cottagers engage with the rest of Calling Lake and host events, the majority of the summer population does not.
The cottagers of Calling Lake do not provide economic benefits to the area, Jardine said.
“They’re not contributing to community development at all. They want this utopia that they can go to and leave without worrying about their stuff, and I just don’t think that can happen,” she said.
However, Brooks said the cottage association sponsors things community. There is an economic benefit to the cottage community building in Calling Lake, he added.
“We do benefit from the cottagers,” Brooks said. “We do get a fair bit of economic development. I know the thousands of dollars I’ve paid hiring local youth. It’s a small thing, but it all helps because we get to know each other.”
Factors behind crime
Jardine said the factors leading into crime in Calling Lake are complex and difficult to summarize.
“It is stemming from residential schools. There is no question about it. It is colonial measures used on First Nations people,” Jardine said, adding Calling Lake also lacks development and employment options.
Calling Lake has not had enough healing from the pains of the residential school system and lacks treatment options, Jardine added.
“The healing isn’t there from residential schools. The cycle of poverty, drug and alcohol abuse — it’s just ongoing,” she said.
Brooks said the justice and educational system have failed Calling Lake.
“The justice system and the education system has failed Calling Lake miserably over the past 20 years. It’s not the teachers. It’s the justice system and the education system,” Brooks said. “We need to reach out and speak out.”
Moving forward together
Part-time Calling Lake resident Tim Siewert started both online and physical petitions to get support for a push to address Calling Lake crime and have an RCMP detachment be put in place there.
In an interview prior to the Aug. 22 meeting, Siewert said the entire Calling Lake community needs to come together to address the problem.
“Full-time, part-time, cottage owners, it affects us all. Everyone’s being broken into here,” Siewert said. “This has got to be everyone in the community (that) needs to have a voice.”
Jardine said property crime does affect everybody and that is likely why Siewert’s petition has also been able to get signatures from full-time residents.
But she noted property crime is happening throughout the province.
“They’re right. It does affect everybody. We all have to take security measures,” she said. “But I think that’s true of everywhere. It’s not unique to Calling Lake.”
In a handwritten note, Calling Lake resident Linda Gladue said she is supportive of the idea of an RCMP detachment in Calling Lake, which the cottage association has also been pushing for.
“We would welcome an RCMP detachment in our community,” Gladue said in the note. “However, it would be to have them a part of the community, not as security for certain parts of the community. We need them in our community to provide a positive image to our grandchildren.”
Meeting upcoming
Athabasca RCMP is hosting a town hall meeting Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. at the Calling Lake Recreation Centre.
The Calling Lake Cottagers Association said in its September newsletter it hopes the meeting will attract people from across the hamlet.
“We hope to see members from all areas in our community there,” the newsletter said.
The Athabasca Advocate published a letter to the editor from Jardine and Gladue Sept. 4, which highlighted their concerns with the Aug. 22 meeting and discussion on crime in the hamlet.
When asked to comment on the letter and the concerns it expressed ahead of the Sept. 15 meeting, Gilligan said he had no comment.
“I do not understand the issue or what would prompt them to write it,” Gilligan said. “The group that made a presentation to the council were very clear in that they considered all of Calling Lake their community.”
In response, Jardine said the racial aspects of Calling Lake could not be ignored.
“This is a race issue,” she said. “There are divisions in Calling Lake that are being ignored. There is great disparity among people. It’s not a united community to be talking about. Just because a few locals signed your petition, does not mean you spoke for the whole community.”
Brooks said he hopes people can co-operate at the Sept. 15 meeting.
“We have to work within the system and we have to work together,” he said. “I’m hoping at that Sept. 15 meeting, the community will take a step forward that it hasn’t taken before.”
Jardine said the Sept. 15 meeting can be successful, but all the parties involved need to arrive with the right perspective and the objective of reconciliation in mind.
“To not understand why we’re upset is upsetting,” Jardine said. “That’s why reconciliation is so hard. Because people won’t shift their perspective.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: The location for the meeting Sept. 15 at 10 a.m. is now they Calling Lake Recreation Centre. The printed edition of this story states it is the Calling Lake Community Centre.
