Blackbear

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FROM: CBC NEWS ONLINE
_http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/10/actor-profiling051110.html
_
(http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...ing051110.html)
Aboriginal actor says Saskatoon police targeted him
Last Updated Thu, 10 Nov 2005 17:46:24 EST
_CBC News_ (http://www.cbc.ca/news/credit.html)

The Saskatoon police are looking into an allegation of racial profiling after
an aboriginal actor visiting from Toronto said he was handcuffed and thrown
into a police cruiser for no good reason.
* INDEPTH: _Aboriginal Canadians_
(http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aboriginals/)

Toronto actor Gregory Odjig speaking in Saskatoon Wednesday.
Theatre and film actor Gregory Odjig is in Saskatoon performing in the
Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company's current production.
Odjig, who is aboriginal says the trouble began early Sunday morning when he
was rushing home from a local convenience store.
"A police car, out of nowhere, slides in and hits me," he told reporters at a
press conference Wednesday. "I had to stop myself from sliding under the car
and I was like, 'What the hell? What's going on?'"
Odjig was freed after police realized he was not the assault suspect they
were seeking.
The young actor believes he was the victim of racial profiling. He thinks
police handcuffed him and threw him in their cruiser simply because he is
native.
Odjig says the ordeal has left him shaken.
"After that incident, I feel afraid just walking down the street being an
aboriginal person," he said. "I hear stories of what it's like and the way
aboriginal people are treated out here and I came out thinking, 'It's not going
to be me, I'm a good person.'"
Saskatoon Police Chief Russell Sabo says he doesn't know if Odjig matched the
description of the suspect police were looking for, but promised the
incident would be investigated.
"I apologize on behalf of all of our members," Sabo said.
The incident is unwelcome publicity for a police service that is trying to
turn its image around in the wake of the Neil Stonechild case. Stonechild's
1990 freezing death was the subject of a 2004 public inquiry that put the
spotlight on the troubled relationship between police and aboriginals in Saskatoon.

__________________
Don't worry that it's not good enough for anyone else to hear... just sing, sing a song.