Gabriel Commanda walk kicks off anti-discrimination week in Val d’Or

This year’s Gabriel Commanda Walk took on added significance as the city of Val-d’Or and the Indigenous community continue to work on improving relations following last fall’s crisis of confidence in provincial police. An estimated 1000 people gathered March 21 to march through downtown carrying flags and banners to celebrate cultural difference and promote equal treatment of all races and creeds.

“Even though it was very cold we had people with warm hearts,” said Edith Cloutier, director of the Val-d’Or Native Friendship Centre. “It’s amazing to see that year after year people come from all over, from many different communities. Mayor [Pierre Corbeil] was there as well as chiefs from the Cree and Algonquin nations.”

Under the theme “Show Your Colours”, the 16^th annual Awareness Week for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination shined a light on issues faced by First Nations living in the Abitibi region and discussed avenues of reconciliation.

“We chose March 21 because it’s the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” Cloutier noted. “The United Nations chose that day to commemorate the end of apartheid. Not everyone is treated equally in the world and we need to be aware of that and do what we can to act locally.”

The Val-d’Or campus of the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue hosted a conference March 22 featuring Carole Lévesque, an anthropologist who has spent 40 years researching the way Aboriginals are treated in Canada. The discussion focused on how to move towards reconciliation with the First Nations of Val-d’Or following last year’s explosive allegations of abuse against officers of the local Sûreté du Québec detachment.

Cloutier said the goal of the week was to raise awareness of the way minority groups are discriminated against, specifically in Val-d’Or and surrounding communities.

“This is a special week that creates dialogue,” she said. “Under the theme of reconciliation we’re looking at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and bringing it to a local level based on what we’ve been through as a community.”

On March 23, members of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation visited the Friendship Centre to network with community workers and leaders on repairing relations between Val-d’Or and its Indigenous population.

The National Centre holds all of the statements, documents and other materials that were collected by the TRC Commission. The archives are accessible online at http://nctr.ca/map.php.

With so many residents of Val-d’Or and the surrounding communities of Abitibi-Témiscamingue working to ease racial tensions, there is hope for the future of the region’s relations amongst all ethnicities.