Organizing Against Racism

Kenora is town of 16,000 people located in northwestern Ontario. As with many towns in Canada's north, racism is a significant problem there. Anishnaabe (Ojibway) people must travel there to shop, attend medical appointments and conduct personal business. However, it is not a place where they feel safe or welcome. As one pastor put it, "Kenora is a racist town but it's something nobody wants to talk about. It only comes up when something really bad happens [someone is killed] and it can't be ignored anymore."

On October 4, 2000, someone was killed: a North Spirit man named Max Kakegamic was found beaten to death on the streets of Kenora. Five years later, his murder remains unsolved and his killer is still at large. As of July 2005, two Kenora police officers stand charged under the Police Services Act for suppressing evidence and other misconduct related to the case.

For many of Kenora's Anishinaabe residents, the Kakegamic case is a stark illustration of the consequences of racism. Aboriginal people in Kenora say that they are routinely harassed, intimidated or neglected by Kenora Police Services (KPS). Anishinaabe street people live in fear of police mistreatment. On any given day, 90% of the people in the municipal jail are Aboriginal. But only 10% of KPS officers are of Aboriginal descent, and only one member the current five-member KPS Board is Aboriginal.

CPT maintained a full-time team in Kenora from September 2004 to May 2005. CPT returned to Kenora in October 2005 for two months, and then again for another two months in the Spring of 2006. Our goal is to build awareness in Kenora' s community white community around the problems of racism and to work with the white community to improve its relationship with the Anishinaabe community.

CPT Kenora is partnered with Kenora's Anishinaabe Coalition for Peace and Justice. The Coalition formed in the Spring of 2004 after criminal charges against the man accused of killing Max Kakegamic were dropped due to police misconduct. The Coalition is calling for police and community accountability in relation to Kakegamic's unsolved murder.

Racism, as it targets and affects Aboriginal people in Canada, is inextricably linked to land, control of land and access to the land's resources. In the Kenora area, the relationship between aboriginal people and the land's newcomers is governed by Treaty #3 .

Kenora was founded in the late nineteenth century as a staging ground for the extraction of resources from the undeveloped wilderness of northwestern Ontario. As the gateway to the boating and fishing paradise of Lake of the Woods, Kenora's population almost triples in the summer. Fifteen percent of Kenora's population is aboriginal and it serves as the regional center for thirteen Anishinaabe communities. In addition to tourism and logging-related industries (Abitibi has a paper mill there), Kenora's economy is sustained by Anishinaabe spending and the social service sector that serves Anishinaabe people.

Background:  Justice for Max Kakegamic

On October 4, 2000, a North Spirit man named Max Kakegamic was found beaten to death on the streets of Kenora. Five years later, his murder remains unsolved and his killer is still at large. As of July, 2005, two Kenora police officers stand charged under the Police Services Act for suppressing evidence and other misconduct related to the case.

Mr. Kakegamic was on his way home to Fort Hope–a remote fly-in Native reserve north of Thunder Bay–after attending the funeral of his cousin in North Spirit, which is 400 km north of Kenora and only accessible by plane as well.

Grieving the loss of his cousin who also died violently, Kakegamic drank heavily during his stop in Kenora. He entered the unlocked apartment of Maria Campanella and passed out on her couch. Campanella called her boyfriend, Justin Carambetsos (age 24), who was working at a nearby bar. Carambetsos evicted Kakegamic.

Kakegamic was killed by a blow to the neck and his body was found in the early morning under a mural honouring Aboriginal culture. A few days later Carambetsos was arrested, charged with second-degree murder and then released without bail, a fact which outraged Native people in Kenora. In June 2001, the charge was stepped down to manslaughter.

When the case finally got to trial in January 2004, charges against Carambetsos were stayed because of irregularities in the investigation. The investigating officers were found to have lied to the court and suppressed evidence that a relative of Sargeant Tom Favreau had been seen near Kakegamic’s body. In his ruling, Justice Hambly wrote, “The evidence of Favreau, [Lloyd] White and [Chris] Ratchford has no credibility in these proceedings. I find with regret that I cannot accept anything that these officers say unless it is corroborated by reliable, independent evidence.”

Favreau and White are facing non-criminal disciplinary charges under the Police Services Act.

Kakegamic is survived by his wife Karen (who was six months pregnant at the time of his murder) and four children. His parents, Isaac and Margaret, continue to press for a resolution to the case.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General of Ontario reported there were 2,004 incarcerations in the Kenora District in 2003, of which 1,562 were of First Nations descent–78 percent of the total. While 2.7 percent of Canada’s population is First Nations, they account for 18.3 percent of all incarcerations in Canada.

What the Kakegamic case seems to illustrate is that when someone in Kenora is stereotyped as a “drunken Indian” it is not only permissible to take matters in your own hands, but you will be protected for doing so.

Kenora’s Anishinaabe Coalition for Peace and Justice and the Grand Council of Treaty 3 have called for a public inquiry into the Kakegamic case.