(Submitted photo)

By Nigel Maxwell

Language Protest

Students and community stage “peaceful protest,” after allegations school janitor told not to speak Cree

Oct 24, 2019 | 5:06 PM

Over 100 people, representing a number of communities from across the region, travelled to the small hamlet of Timber Bay on Montreal Lake on Wednesday, to show their support for a woman who was allegedly told she was not allowed to speak Cree at the K -12 school where she worked. The school division is not commenting as their investigation is ongoing.

“We weren’t expecting it, but we did get support,” school janitor Rose Bradfield said regarding the protest. “I am very thankful for them to come down and support our community. It’s affecting the whole community, it’s not only me.”

The incident that sparked the protest happened last month at Timber Bay School when Bradfield claims she was speaking Cree to an educational assistant, and a teacher who overheard the conversation, wanted to know from the assistant what was said. She believes administration didn’t like her speaking Cree as she was allegedly told by the principal she “shouldn’t be talking like that.”

It wasn’t until Oct. 21, however, when someone with human resources with Northern Lights School Division called Bradfield stating she wasn’t allowed in the building or to talk to teachers there. The call came while she was taking part in a suicide prevention workshop at the school. Bradfield doesn’t know why it took weeks for the division to reach out to her about the incident.

“The principal had made a phone call. I don’t know why he didn’t tell me not to go,” she said. “He should have just told me when I called the school, I wasn’t allowed at the school. I just get a call in the middle of the workshop. I answered and they said I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

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Bradfield was also told she would be placed on paid leave until the matter is resolved.

Shirley Henderson, Chairperson for the Prince Albert Grand Council Women’s Commission was among those in attendance at the protest Wednesday, and said she felt compelled to come from Prince Albert, after hearing a woman was “wrongfully treated for trying to speak her own language in her community where she was born and raised.”

A bus load of students from Montreal Lake Cree Nation travelled to Timber Bay Wednesday to show their support. (Submitted photo)

More recently, paNOW has been told an 11-year-old boy was disciplined at the school for saying the word “here” in Cree as he passed something to his teacher. Among the speakers at the rally on Wednesday, were elders who fought back tears as they discussed how the alleged incidents reminded them of how they were treated at residential schools and day schools. Henderson said the testimonies were very emotional to hear.

“Just down the road from where we had the protest was the Timber Bay Children’s home, and the kids there were not allowed at all to speak Cree or Dene or whatever language they were born and raised with,” she said.

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron was not in Timber Bay on Wednesday, but has been following the case closely since the allegations first surfaced last month. He told paNOW he had not wasted any time contacting the school board.

“Immediately the school board said we are investigating this, which we thought okay, they are going to do something and the principal is going to have to fix it,” he said.

Cameron said he was then alarmed to hear that the school janitor was not allowed on school property until the matter was dealt with.

“Now we expect action,” Cameron said. “We expect discipline of some sort.”

paNOW attempted on Thursday to reach out to the Northern Light School Division for comment but did not receive a reply. The school division had posted the following comment on their Facebook page Oct. 22.

A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation told paNOW they were not prepared to comment on the matter.

“Our obligation is to provide support to the member, and what that looks like varies case-by-case but certainly we are fulfilling that duty at this time.”

With files from Derek Cornet

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell