{"id":64877,"date":"2020-09-02T23:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/death-and-distrust-in-alberta\/"},"modified":"2020-09-02T23:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T20:25:00","slug":"death-and-distrust-in-alberta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/death-and-distrust-in-alberta\/","title":{"rendered":"#Death and distrust in Alberta"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Death and distrust in Alberta<\/strong>”
\nJacob Sansom and Morris Cardinal went on a hunting trip<\/a> and never came back. The killing of the two M\u00e9tis-Cree men deepens Indigenous peoples\u2019 sense that their lives are less valued.<\/p>\n

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\"Sansom<\/img><\/p>\n

Sansom (left) and Cardinal in the selfie sent to Sansom\u2019s wife hours before the pair were killed (Photograph by Leah Hennel)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On a frigid Saturday in late March, Jacob Sansom and his uncle, Morris Cardinal, were out hunting a few hours northeast of Edmonton. The weather was veering between winter and spring, the snow firm but stained with mud. The trip was not unusual for the two M\u00e9tis-Cree men. They\u2019d made the journey many times, says Sansom\u2019s wife, Sarah, distributing the meat they\u2019d taken to Elders in their community: \u201cThey\u2019d make sure everyone\u2019s freezers were stocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

That day, Cardinal, 57, and Sansom, 39, were scouring the woods near Seibert Lake for moose. Sansom, who lived in Nobleford in southern Alberta, had just lost his job as a contractor at Suncor due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was eager to visit family near Bonnyville, where he grew up, and to hunt with his uncle Morris.<\/p>\n

\"Morris<\/img><\/p>\n

Morris Cardinal worked as a hunting guide. Seen here on his beloved quad near Seibert Lake, AB on the day he was killed. (Courtesy of Gina Levasseur)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In a series<\/a> of texts to his wife, who remained in southern Alberta with their three children, Sansom detailed bits and pieces of what would be the final day of his life. He sent a good-morning message. Then, when Sansom and Cardinal shot a moose, he sent her pictures of the game<\/a>. Later still, Cardinal and his nephew posed for a selfie\u2014Sansom flashing a toothy grin while Cardinal beamed from ear to ear. \u201cYou\u2019d think that for somebody that hunted as much as he did, the novelty of shooting a moose would wear off,\u201d Sarah says. \u201cBut it didn\u2019t with them, because they were like, \u2018We get to feed people.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n

That photo would make its way across Canada beneath news<\/a> headlines after Cardinal\u2019s and Sansom\u2019s bodies were discovered the following day with gunshot wounds. The men lay next to Sansom\u2019s black pickup truck on a road near the village of Glendon, about 215 km northeast of Edmonton, for seven hours before a passerby spotted them at 4 a.m. The victims\u2019 families would not be notified until later that morning.<\/p>\n

RCMP have since arrested two men from the Glendon area\u201431-year-old Anthony Bilodeau and his 56-year-old father, Roger\u2014and charged both with second-degree murder. The two have been denied bail and are to be tried together.<\/p>\n

The slaying of the two hunters made only a brief impression outside of Alberta as the country grapp<\/a>led with the onset of COVID-19. But for Indigenous and M\u00e9tis people on the rural Prairies, it has aggravated traumas from past killings\u2014not least that of Colten Boushie, the 22-year-old Cree man shot to death on a Saskatchewan farm in 2016. For many, the deaths reinforced the sense that, in a region rife with racial tensions, their lives are valued less than those of their white neighbours.<\/p>\n

More specifically, activists say, the case has rekindled a fraught history of disagreement over land use and hunting rights\u2014a subject of ongoing debate that has played out in both court cases and political decision-making at the provincial level. As recently as last year, the province expanded M\u00e9tis hunting areas, acting on a 2003 Supreme Court decision. The move was met with criticism from local wildlife groups who feared it would lead to over-hunting in some areas, and deepened resentment among some residents who don\u2019t see why M\u00e9tis should have special hunting rights.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0How this Indigenous community enjoyed a rare caribou feast<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What role such tensions might have played in Cardinal\u2019s and Sansom\u2019s deaths remains unclear, with a trial months or possibly years away. What is known, according to Sarah Sansom, is that her husband and Cardinal were at a family member\u2019s home near Glendon that evening, dropping off the meat from their hunt and staying for about three hours. Sansom called his wife at 9:28 p.m. before he and his uncle began driving to his mother\u2019s house near Moose Lake, just outside of Bonnyville.<\/p>\n

Sansom\u2019s two older children were staying the night with their grandmother, and he was excited to head there to cuddle with them, Sarah says. \u201cI love you, I\u2019ll call you when I get to my mom\u2019s,\u201d she recalls him saying. He texted her again at 9:36 p.m., she says, confirming he had left. Sarah replied, \u201cOkay, I love you.\u201d Her phone showed that he read that text. She sent another one a few minutes later. \u201cDrive safe,\u201d it said. That text, Sansom never read.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/img><\/p>\n

A Levasseur Sansom family photo from 2013 shows Jake\u2019s \u201cWolf Pack\u201d on a medicine walk. With him are his three kids Cierra, Addison and Daylen and nephews Tharyn and Nova. His sister was ill at the time, so they did a healing ceremony in the forest. Her medical problems resolved shortly afterwards. (Courtesy of Gina Levasseur and Sarah Sansom)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After piecing together events that followed, RCMP said in a statement that the two men were involved in a confrontation at a quiet intersection with two occupants of another vehicle, not far down the street from the house Sansom and Cardinal had just left. A heated argument erupted, followed by a physical altercation between the men and those in the other vehicle. Police allege that Anthony Bilodeau then drove up in a third vehicle and shot Sansom and Cardinal.<\/p>\n

Bilodeau was arrested five days later, but it would be another two months before his father was arrested and charged. In August, the case was approved for direct indictment, meaning it is expected to go to trial, but a date has not yet been set.<\/p>\n

Police have said the accused and the two M\u00e9tis-Cree men did not know each other prior to their deaths, though media<\/a> reports later revealed that the younger Bilodeau worked briefly with Sansom at the DLM Oilfield Enterprises workshop in Bonnyville\u2014a surprise to Sarah, who says her husband never spoke of him. \u201cI was his outlet to vent, so I would\u2019ve heard the name,\u201d Sarah says. \u201cIf he really knew Jake,\u201d she adds, \u201cwhy would he ever want to hurt him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sansom was born in Bonnyville and had three siblings and three children. A former firefighter and mechanic, he had an affinity for creative writing, jiu-jitsu and Disney movies. \u201cHe was like a giant kid,\u201d Sarah says. \u201cBig and tough and strong with lots of powerful energy, but at the same time so childlike and innocent.\u201d Cardinal was a skilled hunter and father of one daughter and three stepchildren, who was known for his generosity among his nieces, nephews and five grandchildren.<\/p>\n

\"Sansom<\/img><\/p>\n

Sansom and her children, from left to right, Addison, 11, Daylen, 9, and 13, and Ceirra, 13 (Photograph by Leah Hennel)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Sarah, who is not Indigenous, says her husband was no stranger to racist encounters throughout his life. A M\u00e9tis man with Cree ancestry, Sansom had been bullied in school in rural Alberta, says Sarah, and passed up for jobs later in life because of it.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d witnessed some of that racism herself, she adds. Once, at a gas stop in Glendon with Sansom and Cardinal, a passerby approached her when she was briefly alone, worried by the sight of a white woman travelling with two men who looked Indigenous. \u201cExcuse me, miss, do you need help? Are you in danger?\u201d they asked, to her surprise. \u201cGrowing up in Calgary, I didn\u2019t really see [the racism] until we started dating,\u201d Sarah says.<\/p>\n

The RCMP has said there is no evidence suggesting the killings were racially motivated, but a growing number of the family\u2019s supporters have challenged that assertion, rallying outside the accused\u2019s pretrial court hearings in Edmonton and the town of St. Paul. Some wear T-shirts reading, \u201cJustice for Jake and Morris.\u201d Activists point to a long history of incidents on the rural Prairies they say resulted from anti-Indigenous and anti-M\u00e9tis discrimination on the part of both civilians and the RCMP\u2014a legacy that has shaken their trust in the system to explore a potential racial dimension to the case.<\/p>\n

One such critic is Melodie Bastien, a Blackfoot woman from Piikani First Nation near Lethbridge, who brought such grievances last year to Alberta\u2019s first-ever anti-racism council, which is tasked with finding ways to break down systemic discrimination in the province. Bastien says that when she heard the news of Cardinal\u2019s and Sansom\u2019s death, she broke down.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Canada must stop normalizing inequality for Indigenous people<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI thought of Colten Boushie, and I thought, is that what it is coming to? That our Indigenous people are being treated like we\u2019re not even human?\u201d Bastien says.<\/p>\n

The M\u00e9tis Nation of Alberta (MNA) is also keeping a watchful eye on the case, updating its membership as hearings unfold. For Audrey Poitras, the organization\u2019s president, the deaths of Cardinal and Sansom should not be considered separately from their status as M\u00e9tis who, hours before they were killed, were exercising their rights to hunt. Most of her work as president over the last 20 years, she says, has been fighting for the rights of M\u00e9tis as Indigenous people in Canada: \u201cFor the longest time, our country and our province denied those rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/img><\/p>\n

Three generations together, now gone: circa 1996 (l-r) Augustive (Gus) Cardinal, Jacob Sansom, and Morris Cardinal. (Courtesy of Gina Levasseur)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Indeed, many of them were only solidified during the last two decades. Canada\u2019s Constitution was amended in 1982 to recognize M\u00e9tis\u2014people of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry. But their hunting rights weren\u2019t defined until 2003, when two men fought charges in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., for killing a moose out of season, winning their case before the Supreme Court of Canada.<\/p>\n

Those rights were recognized by Alberta the following year in an agreement with the M\u00e9tis, only to be cancelled in 2007 after an Alberta judge ruled the agreement was not enforceable in court. But the M\u00e9tis pushed for reinstatement, reaching an agreement in early 2019 under then-premier Rachel Notley that allowed them to hunt in northern and central Alberta year-round.<\/p>\n

Talks continue to include more areas under the agreement where M\u00e9tis people have historically lived, including the province\u2019s south. But Poitras says everyone concerned\u2014not least the Alberta government\u2014could do more to educate the public. \u201cIt would help a lot in breaking that cycle of \u2018You don\u2019t have rights, you can\u2019t be here,\u2019\u2009\u201d she says, adding: \u201cI certainly don\u2019t ever want to see anything like this happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the MNA is focusing on helping the families of Sansom and Cardinal with financial and legal support. And despite her family\u2019s loss, Sarah Sansom says she\u2019s determined to keep fighting for the fullest possible accounting of the killings, and the events that led to them. She has travelled with family to court hearings in Edmonton and St. Paul, speaking at rallies through tears about her love for her husband and the lives he and his uncle cherished. \u201cI don\u2019t want anyone to forget who my husband was, and who Morris was,\u201d Sarah says. \u201cThey should be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/hr>\n

This article appears in print in the October 2020 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s magazine with the headline, \u201cDeath and distrust in Alberta.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

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“#Death and distrust in Alberta” Jacob Sansom and Morris Cardinal went on a hunting trip and never came back. The killing of the two M\u00e9tis-Cree men deepens Indigenous peoples\u2019 sense that their lives are less valued. Sansom (left) and Cardinal in the selfie sent to Sansom\u2019s wife hours before the pair were killed (Photograph by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67894,22974,67893,67806,67895,67896,67878,115,67879,21406],"class_list":["post-64877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-alberta","tag-canada","tag-death-and-distrust-in-alberta","tag-editors-picks","tag-hunting","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-life","tag-news","tag-society","tag-systemic-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}