COCHRANE— A duo of Cochrane moms are looking to shine a light on the racism they and their families experience every day.
Vanesa Ortiz and her family moved from Mexico to Cochrane in 2016. While the community has been one they can call home, the safety of her family and their feeling of belonging was shaken to the core when her daughter experienced a racially motivated verbal attack at her school last year.
Fernanda, who was in Grade 6 at the time, was at her school's playground and had an argument with one of her friends. The girl's father came onto the school grounds to approach Fernanda and verbally assault her over the fight.
“[He told her] 'that if you don’t like it here you should go back to your county, I’ve given my daughter permission to punch you in the face, I’m going to make sure you’re going to get expelled,'” Oritz said. “It was a series of violent threats. Physical violence vocabulary was involved. It was a series of things an adult shouldn’t ever be telling a child.”
Ortiz did not hear about the incident until two days later when the school called to check-in on Fernanda. They specifically wanted to ensure that she “did not feel targeted,” Oritz said.
She went to the RCMP to file a complaint because she felt it was a serious having an adult approach and harass her child. RCMP did follow up with the school and the father but in the end, nothing came of the incident.
Ortiz said she felt naive because she thought children were sacred in Canada and that the father would face consequences for his actions.
“Children are sacred. You don’t talk to them, you don’t touch them, you don’t hurt them in any way possible,” Oritz said. “It’s one of those times as a mom I felt the most powerless. I feel betrayed by an institution that is supposed to protect me and protect my children.”
The school apologized but told her they could do nothing to prevent the man from coming to the school.
Ortiz said she feared for Fernanda’s safety and chose to move her to a different school because she was scared the father would threaten her again.
“We are brown and this is a white person exercising his power, his white supremacist power, on an 11-year-old,” Oritz said.
Things are better now, but Ortiz said the incident left her family questioning if they wanted to live in Cochrane.
While Cochrane RCMP cannot comment on specific incidents, Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said when complaints of this nature are received they look closely at the interpretation of a hate crime based on the threshold established by the Criminal Code of Canada.
“People do have freedom of speech and freedom of expression but it does reach a threshold where it can become criminal,” he said. “Unfortunately, racist comments, although completely inappropriate and wrong, they don’t necessarily meet that threshold to be a criminal offence.”
Complaints of this nature can be difficult to peruse, he said, because the Criminal Code is not always black and white.
The Criminal Code section 319 (1) talks about public incitement of hatred against any identifiable group that has the potential to lead to a breach of the peace. Other subsections talk about the promotion of hatred as well.
It is complicated when the RCMP receives calls in regards to this section of the Criminal Code because they are dynamic situations to engage with and define as a criminal offence.
“If it doesn’t meet the threshold of criminal charges it certainly doesn’t mean that that it’s ok,” Savinkoff said.
Deborah Smith had experience similar to what happened to Ortiz, when her son was in Grade 6. Smith hails from El Salvador and her husband from Ottawa. They have called Cochrane home for around 15 years.
“He had an incident when he was playing with one of his friends and they got back into the classroom and he said ‘oh, your face is dirty’ [to my son],” Smith said. Her son went to the bathroom and washed his face only to be told by his Caucasian friend that his face was still dirty.
“He [the son's friend] goes ‘your whole body is dirty,” Smith said. “I was completely shocked that in a small town like Cochrane my child was going through this.”
Smith said she called the principal to explain the situation and asked that some type of educational action be taken to discourage racism in the classroom.
The principal declined this request.
“That was the first incident of that kind that we experienced,” she said. “There’s been other incidents anywhere you go in Cochrane— It’s uncomfortable because yeah I may look a little bit different than other people but it doesn’t mean I’m there to cause a problem or cause an issue.”
It is frustrating experiencing passive forms of racism every day, Smith said, but she understands that, for now, it is the world they live in.
Smith explained that she teaches kids to be the better person and to show love instead of spilling hate.
However, Smith said they deal with microaggression every day and at times it can become exhausting.
“We’ve been told from the minute that we arrived in this county that we don’t belong here,” Smith said. “It’s heartbreaking to me.”
Ortiz added that it can be especially challenging because many families like hers moved to Canada leaving behind their support network to start a new life.
It is a struggle for parents because they are trying to make a new city and country feel like home for their children.
“After all that work I did for three years a random guy comes and tells her this is not her home,” Oritz said. “Now it’s not home anymore because a random guy just shattered her confidence and safety net.”
The incident has played a pivotal role in her life, she said because it imparted the critical need to call out racism whenever it happens.
“Being a racist does not equal to being a bad person it means that you have grown up in a society and have been socialized to only view things from your perspective centred in whiteness,” Ortiz said. “It does not mean that you are a terrible person.”