Another Little Girl Beaten and Raped on a Reserve

[Gary Oak]

RCMP have arrested a man after an attack left a six-year-old girl lying naked and severely injured in the snow on a reserve west of Edmonton.



The girl was tobogganing with others Saturday afternoon on the Paul First Nation. She left the group after being told to go home and change into dry clothes, a family member told CBC News.





'It shouldn't happen around here. Not to a child. Not to anyone for that matter.'





The girl was attacked and brutally beaten. Family members found her in the snow, naked and suffering from hypothermia. One relative said the little girl was so badly beaten that family members didn't initially recognize her.



The girl was flown to hospital by STARS air ambulance around 5 p.m. MT. The girl is in critical but stable condition, RCMP said.



Investigators from RCMP and Edmonton Police Service's major crimes unit cordoned off a large area of the reserve Sunday afternoon, centred around where the girl was found. Investigators were seen gathering evidence from behind a nearby gas station.



The Paul First Nation sent a message on behalf of the family on Sunday asking for privacy.



"We trust the family's wishes will be fully respected so they can focus all of their energy, attention and prayers on the victim's immediate well-being and what we are all hoping and praying will be a speedy and full recovery," the release said.



'It's on everybody's minds'



News of the attack spread quickly through the tight-knit reserve. People crowded the pews of the First Nation's Baptist church Sunday morning, offering prayers for the young girl.



'It's on everybody's minds," said Pastor Dan Crumbaugh.



Elder James Rein says information about the attack spread quickly through the Paul First Nation. He thinks there needs to be a greater police presence on the reserve. (CBC)



"It brings us to the realization that it could happen at any time, to anyone."



Elder James Rein, who knows the little girl, said the community has been rocked by the news.



He said information about the attack has spread quickly through the community. But it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that he heard how badly the girl had been injured.



"I heard something about it last night. I didn't know who, I didn't know where."



Rein thinks the reserve needs a better police presence.



"It shouldn't happen around here. Not to a child. Not to anyone, for that matter."



RCMP have not released the identities of the girl or the man arrested. Charges are pending.

[Gary Oak]

It's not the first time there have been problems on that reserve.





A parent of children attending Alberta's Paul Band First Nation School says she was pushed to backdate their school attendance records.



The mother, who has asked CBC News to conceal her identity over fears she will be ostracized by her community, said she signed a letter stating her children received schooling back in September — more than a month before they began classes at the school, 60 kilometres west of Edmonton.



The letter was given to her by Ruby Bird, the band's director of education, the woman told CBC News.



"I did it because she said to me if I didn't sign it my children wouldn't be able to go to school anywhere and that she'd kick them out of here," she said. "I was all stressed. went home [and] told my husband and he said, 'Just sign it, just as long as the boys are in school.'"



The mother's allegations mirror similar complaints by the school's staff.



In May, the principal, a teaching assistant and all but one of seven teachers at the school learned their contracts wouldn't be renewed for the 2010-11 school year.



90 students at school



About 250 school-age children live on the Paul Band First Nation reserve but only 90 attend the band's school, which runs from kindergarten to Grade 9. The rest are bused to schools in Parkland County.



According to published reports, Chief Daniel Paul said the dismissals were intended to give the school a "clean slate" in September 2010.



But some teachers said the dismissals were in retaliation for grievances they filed earlier this year, alleging they were asked to lie about student numbers and attendance hours to get more school funding from the federal government.



Olga Cummings was one of several teachers who wrote a letter to the band council in January. In her letter, Cummings alleges she was asked to add the names of three students who haven't been in her class for years to the nominal roll or attendance figures.



"I point-blank said, 'It's fraud. I won't do it,'" Cummings told CBC News.



Teachers have also alleged that the school's director of education pressured them to inflate the attendance records of at least 50 students.



According to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the school receives $6,800 a year in funding for each student. Students needed to be in class at least 40 per cent of the time between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15 for the school to qualify.



Principal Mike Hanlon, one of the staff members being let go, said a federal investigation is needed.



"I believe there's a fiduciary responsibility of the federal government who funds a First Nation [school] to make sure that there is accountability of how the funds are obtained and how the funds are spent."



On Wednesday, the school's administration abruptly ended the school year a week early. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada announced the same day that it would take a closer look at the teachers' complaints.



None of the allegations have been independently verified.



Calls by CBC News to Bird and the band council were not returned.

[Gary Oak]

A Paul First Nation man was sentenced to 3½ years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the death of Tyler Enoch Bird last year.

paul band albertaThe body of Trevor Bird was found Oct. 1, 2010.

Darion Anson Rain, 20, who was originally charged with second-degree murder, was sentenced in Stony Plain Provincial Court Tuesday.



A second man, Fraser Mackenzie Rain, remains charged with second degree murder and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at the end of November.  



Bird's body was found Oct. 1, 2010 by person searching in the bush for horses.



Police are not releasing details around the case, including the cause of death, until the matter makes its way through the courts.

[Gary Oak]

Family and friends of two Paul Band First Nation teens who died of an ecstasy overdose last week gathered Saturday to pay their last respects.



Trinity Dawn Bird, 15, and Leah Dominique House, 14, took the stimulant during a wedding celebration Sunday, March 22. Both died later that week.



More than 200 people attended the memorial service Saturday.



Young people from the community carried red roses in honour of the teens, and traditional First Nations drummers played as the girls' caskets were carried away.



Billy Morin, who came to pay his respects, said he's fed up with the drugs being distributed in the small community.



"All the drug dealers need to get out of here, it's not good. [There's] lots of drug dealers. All the partying, drugs and alcohol needs to change. It seems to be what's messing up our people," Morin said.



Police were called to a wedding early last Sunday after four teenage girls suddenly became ill after taking the stimulant ecstasy. Three girls were rushed to hospital.



Trinity, who had been in a coma, died in hospital Tuesday night.



Leah died Wednesday. She had also been in a coma.



The third teen was released from hospital on Wednesday.



The fourth girl was assessed and treated on site Sunday morning.



A 16-year-old boy faces nine charges, including two counts of criminal negligence causing death, in relation to the drug-related deaths.



The Paul Band First Nation is 80 kilometres west of Edmonton on the Wabamun Lake Reserve.

[Frost]

Very sad about the girl, and deaths, it really hurts me inside to think anyone could do stuff like that.

To mistreat an innocent especially for primal sexual reasons people should be put away from society forever.  

I see all the time on the news they get out just to do the same, or worse, and why ????

[Anonymous]

Police arrested a suspect in this case. He's 21 years old, well known to police and a distant relative of the victim.

[Obvious Li]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

[Anonymous]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

I cannot bring myself to read anything about this horrific incident Obvious Li.

[Renee]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

That's racist. Where is Romero when you need him?  ac_lmfao

[Anonymous]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

That's racist. Where is Romero when you need him?  ac_lmfao

Racism had nothing to do with this horrific incident though.

[Renee]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

That's racist. Where is Romero when you need him?  ac_lmfao

Racism had nothing to do with this horrific incident though.

Correct but OL's comment sure was. ac_toofunny

[Anonymous]

i think we need a 50 or 60 million dollar inquiry to look into this...oh ya and tell the white man, you know, those whities we hate to send in more police so we stop killing and raping each other...maybe throw in some bullets and firewater as well.......cheers

Nope, no expensive inquiry when the perp is also Aboriginal. The corrupt scumbag 1 percenter fucking chiefs would like to get their greedy hands on some of that cash, but not if it means shining a light on what I think is the number one issue on reserves....sexual abuse/violence.



It's going to be a different relationship with the Aboriginal big wigs when we take over. We don't have collective white guilt. One citizenship for anyone and we'll leave the special ethnic rights in the first half of the 20th century where it fucking belongs. acc_angry

[Hornung]

It's not the first time there have been problems on that reserve.





A parent of children attending Alberta's Paul Band First Nation School says she was pushed to backdate their school attendance records.



The mother, who has asked CBC News to conceal her identity over fears she will be ostracized by her community, said she signed a letter stating her children received schooling back in September — more than a month before they began classes at the school, 60 kilometres west of Edmonton.



The letter was given to her by Ruby Bird, the band's director of education, the woman told CBC News.



"I did it because she said to me if I didn't sign it my children wouldn't be able to go to school anywhere and that she'd kick them out of here," she said. "I was all stressed. went home [and] told my husband and he said, 'Just sign it, just as long as the boys are in school.'"



The mother's allegations mirror similar complaints by the school's staff.



In May, the principal, a teaching assistant and all but one of seven teachers at the school learned their contracts wouldn't be renewed for the 2010-11 school year.



90 students at school



About 250 school-age children live on the Paul Band First Nation reserve but only 90 attend the band's school, which runs from kindergarten to Grade 9. The rest are bused to schools in Parkland County.



According to published reports, Chief Daniel Paul said the dismissals were intended to give the school a "clean slate" in September 2010.



But some teachers said the dismissals were in retaliation for grievances they filed earlier this year, alleging they were asked to lie about student numbers and attendance hours to get more school funding from the federal government.



Olga Cummings was one of several teachers who wrote a letter to the band council in January. In her letter, Cummings alleges she was asked to add the names of three students who haven't been in her class for years to the nominal roll or attendance figures.



"I point-blank said, 'It's fraud. I won't do it,'" Cummings told CBC News.



Teachers have also alleged that the school's director of education pressured them to inflate the attendance records of at least 50 students.



According to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the school receives $6,800 a year in funding for each student. Students needed to be in class at least 40 per cent of the time between Sept. 23 and Oct. 15 for the school to qualify.



Principal Mike Hanlon, one of the staff members being let go, said a federal investigation is needed.



"I believe there's a fiduciary responsibility of the federal government who funds a First Nation [school] to make sure that there is accountability of how the funds are obtained and how the funds are spent."



On Wednesday, the school's administration abruptly ended the school year a week early. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada announced the same day that it would take a closer look at the teachers' complaints.



None of the allegations have been independently verified.



Calls by CBC News to Bird and the band council were not returned.

Only a racist, sinophobic, fucked in the head, nutcase, cyberbully like Gary Oak who spams many different forums with the racist, poorly selling Tartan for three years would blame the reserve for this crime.

[Gary Oak]

Nitive girls have told me that all girls on reserves have at one time or another been molested and/or raped. One told me that he mother sold her to h er grandfather for sex for a mere 25 dollars

[Anonymous]

Nitive girls have told me that all girls on reserves have at one time or another been molested and/or raped. One told me that he mother sold her to h er grandfather for sex for a mere 25 dollars

I don't know about these sources of yours, but I have had to give band councils detailed risk assessment plans. Land claims, soveriegnty, expensive enquiries into the small % of Aboriginal women that are NOT killed by Aboriginal men is all a smokescreen. Family violence and sexual abuse of Aboriginal women by Aboriginal men is the most serious issue facing Natives in Canada.