The peace and harmony that many small towns enjoy during the holiday season was disrupted by a series of violence directed at businesses kenoraOntario, forcing city council to call an emergency meeting on Thursday.
There have been at least four incidents this month where people have been accused of assaulting business owners or patrons in the downtown core.
“We are a community in crisis right now. I get that from talking to our business people and residents,” said Andy Scribillo, president of the Kenora Chamber of Commerce.
The most recent incident occurred on 23 December at the peak of Christmas shopping. A 29-year-old man was arrested for assault and mischief at a business on the 300 block of Second Street. Newly elected Mayor Andrew Poirier and the council hastily called a public meeting and promised action.
“We’re taking in all that information … but we’re also doing our part because we’re part of the solution — seven people here around this (council) table,” Poirier said from a closed-door meeting with the council. Said member and senior administrative staff before retirement.
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Violence is nothing new, but it is becoming more brazen and frequent. A survey last February found that 70 percent of residents do not feel safe in the city. Addiction, mental health and homelessness all play a role and the current community support and police are not able to keep on top of the problem.
Business owners in the meeting elaborated on brazen theft, vandalism and vandalism, people misusing washrooms and being violent towards people shopping, working or doing business. Many said they could not keep staff because of the violence and were facing permanent shuttering.
Scott Cook, owner of Little Caesars Pizza in Core, said, “We are attacked daily, death threats are made every day, they come in belligerent and intoxicated, spit on employees stealing from the store. “
He said that his plumbing is constantly clogged with needles and that people would urinate and defecate in the restaurant when they were refused access to the toilet.
A local therapist who works with many people struggling with addition and mental health says that while she understands the complex issues and wants to be part of the solution, she takes her young children out of town to shop. Afraid to even take it.
But on the other hand people are taking to social media to promote vigilance on the ‘people of the streets’ – 85 per cent of whom are indigenous – even though only a small percentage are responsible for the violence.
“People were sending me screenshots of people in this community asking for the Starlight Tour to return,” said activist Tania Cameron, an Anishinabekwe (Ojibwe woman) who lives, works and raises a family in Kenora. Nourishes.
Starlight tourism refers to an indigenous person being surrounded at night, driven out of town and left – often to die. The term was coined by the Saskatoon police who killed Neil Stonechild, the Salto man, in 1990 when he froze to death.
Cameron said, “I was horrified to read that vigilante justice was being called for and even this morning I was reading people saying they never go to town unarmed… people heed that call.” Rejecting.”
Advocates say the reality is that people living on the streets are usually the first victims of violence before it spills over into businesses.
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Mary-Elise Smith with Kenora Moving Forward, an advocacy and support group that works at street-level with the estimated 150 homeless in Kenora, fears her community is a powder keg as inflammatory language ramps up.
“People talk about making Kenora great again and our question is good for whom? It’s never been good here for the indigenous people here. Always,” Smith said.
Craig Lavand, a member of the nearby Wojushak Onigum First Nation (Rat Portage), lived on the street in Kenora battling drug addiction. He understands that tensions are high, but some people make it a race issue.
“This town is built on drunken violence – you have town placards talking about street brawls between police forces,” he said, referring to the 1880s when settler governments used this They were fighting over whether Kenora would also be a part of Manitoba or Ontario. as a lucrative bootlegging trade.
Ontario Provincial Police were present at Thursday’s emergency meeting, but neither spoke nor responded to Global News’ requests for data on the violence or plans to address it.
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