Two RCMP officers shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in the small prairie town of Wetaskiwin, AB early Friday morning. I was immediately sick to my stomach when I read the news online. No matter how many times this violence unfolds against our people, despite knowing the disproportionate statistics, it’s always gutting. Because between the headlines, nothing is ever done about it and the stats are getting worse.

According to a statement from the RCMP, the officers responded to an “individual” who had called 911 concerned that he was being followed and people were “trying to kill him.”

Less than an hour later the police found the 911 caller, approached him, and found him in possession of “several” weapons which they “were able to confiscate” (note: police can interpret weapons to be anything — from a stick or a rock, to a knife or a gun). No information has been released regarding what kind of weapons were confiscated.

After these weapons were confiscated, the statement says a “confrontation occurred” — which is when the two officers opened fire. The officers “immediately” began  “life saving measures,” and “the individual” was taken to hospital — where he would be pronounced dead. 

That “individual,” was a teenage boy who was loved and cherished by his family and friends in the community of Maskwacis, where he grew up, which encompasses Samson Cree Nation in Central Alberta.

His name was Hoss Lightning, and according to a Missing Persons Report released by the RCMP just weeks before they shot him, Hoss was a big boy, at 6’1 and 240 pounds. 

Nevertheless, he was a boy. We don’t yet know the details as to why he was listed as missing.  

But we do know he was loved. 

I spoke with his family members this week, including his grandmother, who sent me a photo taken just months ago. In it, Hoss is holding up a picture of his late grandfather and asking if he looked like him.

The family had a traditional feast on Monday, four days after his death as per Cree protocol. His grandmother said they’re planning a funeral once they receive word on when his body will be released. An autopsy is expected to be performed sometime this week.

The Samson Cree Nation has called for the officers involved to be fired, a “transparent and accountable” investigation and de-escalation training for officers working with Indigenous communities. But the issues involved go far beyond how we respond to this individual case. 

I don’t think his death was an accident. 

Hoss was a victim of systemic racism, a deep crisis in this country and a deeply embedded problem within policing systems.

He was a First Nations boy who called for help and was instead murdered. At this point, there are a lot of unknowns, and the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team is currently investigating.

But what I know is that if Hoss was white, he would most likely still be with us today. Because I know that Indigenous Peoples in Canada are 10 times more likely to be killed by police than white people.   

Trackinginjustice.ca (A multi-university research project studying deaths during interactions with police) indicates Indigenous Peoples make up just 5.1 percent of Canada’s total population yet account for 16.2 percent of people killed by police. Their research also reveals that a stunning 800 people (and counting) have been killed via police use of force between 2000 and 2024.

On Tuesday, as I was writing this piece, news broke of the death of Tammy Bateman, a First Nations woman who was struck and killed by a Winnipeg Police truck. It can be hard to keep up. 

The stats are being tracked as of late, but this violence has been a presence in the lives of Indigenous Peoples since the founding of this country. The RCMP were created to clear the plains of the so-called Indian problem and make way for the interests of the colonial regime, including rounding up First Nations onto reserves; enforcing the pass system and assisting government and church agents in ripping Native children out of the arms of their parents to send them to abusive, assimilative Indian residential schools.

We know about the long and troubled history of broken relationships, about the targeting, the Starlight Tours, the complacency of the RCMP in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls genocide, the RCMP assaults on prominent First Nation leaders such as Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam in 2020, or the killings that shock the nation such as when Edmundson, New Brunswick police shot and killed 26-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation woman Chantal Moore during a wellness check in 2020.

I’ve reported on these injustices for years and I’ve been an on-the-ground witness to police violently enforcing government and industry injunctions. Time and time again, Indigenous Peoples who oppose industrial projects are removed from their territories. 

Understanding the history and knowing our people are targeted by police with brutality and murder is one of the reasons I refused to leave when an Edmonton City Police officer screamed at me while I was covering their raid of an Indigenous homeless camp in January. 

I know what happens to our people, and I needed to be a witness to document any potential missteps by the police because of how uniquely vulnerable our people are in these situations.

But on that day I found myself arrested and jailed for doing my job. 

The overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s criminal justice system has for years been a serious and deeply concerning issue that highlights systemic inequalities and biases within the Canadian legal and law enforcement systems.

The overrepresentation in prisons and the disproportionate likelihood of being killed by police point to serious flaws in our criminal justice system that are taking the lives of our people. 

Factors that contribute to these disparities include historical trauma and the intergenerational effects of colonialism; socioeconomic inequalities, systemic racism and bias in the justice system; a lack of culturally appropriate services and support; and the over-policing of Indigenous communities.

Canada is apparently in an era of so-called Truth and Reconciliation, but it seems as if the relationship between Natives and non-Natives is as broken as ever. These victims, like Hoss who had his whole life ahead of him, are more than statistics. This violence happens to real people, families and communities.

Before more lives are lost, we have to tackle this crisis head-on. These systems are dripping with racism and discrimination, and injustice is running rampant. It needs to be seen as a crisis and a fix will require government action, community engagement and societal change. 

When will the apathy cease and the lives of Indigenous Peoples be valued in Canada? How many more headlines about bullets ripping through our skin and hearts are needed to get through to those in power that Native lives matter?