Login / RegisterCurtis Brick's death is a reminder of Frank Paul
The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has compared the death of Curtis Brick with that of Frank Paul. Like Paul, a Mi’kmaq man who was left in an alley by a Vancouver police officer in December 1998, Brick didn’t receive proper help because he was Native, according to Grand Chief Stewart Phillip. Brick is an aboriginal man who died last month after lying in the sun in an East Vancouver park on one of the hottest days ever recorded in the city.
“Clearly what was responsible for the death of Frank Paul was the undeniable systemic racism that exists within the criminal justice system,” Phillip told the Straight. “And similarly, what contributed to the death of Mr. Brick was the same systemic racism that exists within the emergency-care services that failed to provide the adequate level of service to Mr. Brick in order to save his life.”
Jenifer Brousseau-Mallett was one of two people who tried to revive the unconscious Brick in Grandview Park on the afternoon of July 29.
Two Vancouver firefighters arrived 45 minutes after Brousseau-Mallett made a 911 call. According to the aboriginal outreach worker, a firefighter used his boot to push Brick, and yelled, “Get up!”
Paramedics arrived later, and handled Brick very roughly, Brousseau-Mallett said. She recalled that the oxygen mask they put on Brick hit his nose, causing it to bleed profusely.
“They didn’t treat him the way they would treat their grandmother or their mother if she was in that situation,” Brousseau-Mallett told the Straight. According to her, Brick “was just treated like another drunk Indian”.
An account of the incident released by the Vancouver Aboriginal Transformative Justice Services Society on August 14 noted that the ambulance that took Brick to the hospital didn’t put on its flashing lights.
It’s not clear when Brick died.
Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services would welcome an investigation, according to assistant chief for communications Steve Laleune.
Laleune told the Straight that the firefighters who responded followed the appropriate protocol, and that neither one reported that they had put their boots on Brick.
Neither the B.C. Ambulance Service nor Local 873 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents paramedics, returned calls by deadline.
what a drunken idiot
Besides, if you're afraid to touch people except with your boots, maybe being an emergency worker isn't the job for you?
But it sure doesn't help that all we get from the UBCIC is a cartoonish and ultimately self-defeating cry of "racism." That's no way to start trying to solve the problem... unless of course, your agenda is to perpetuate it because there's profit in being a victim. Where is the UBCIC when it comes to "collecting" the mentally ill and addicted, housing them, and rehabilitating them? Do they intervene to rescue the Frank Pauls of the world? And if they do, have they taken responsibility for failing? What will they do differently to avoid failure?
Unfortunately, the sight of someone passed out on the grass in that park is not unusual. Accusing emergency workers of being racist because they nudged him with their boot ignores the fact that they probably have good reason, based on experience, to be careful when they approach someone who appears to be unconscious, particularly if there might be narcotics or alcohol involved. Does anyone thank these professionals for the thousands of successes they have? Can someone point me to the UBCIC sending a letter of appreciation to the Fire Department, or the Police Department, or the EMTs, for jobs well done?
The larger problem -- the one that transcends color of skin and cultural heritage -- is that even though we spend a lot of money, we have ineffective ways of dealing with mental illness and addiction problems. We have lots of people who are compassionate, but few willing or able to take the risks of making hard-nosed decisions for people who are evidently unable to make self-preserving decisions for themselves. It's easier just to bury them.
This is not a racism thing, this is a human being issue. Homelessness does not care about the color of your skin or your ethnicity group. There are reports and reports on the internet of homeless people being beaten, put on fire, ridiculed by the younger generation who have been protected in the unrealistic world created by their parents. Who puts those thoughts in their heads, bigots of ignorant generations.
I was sick to my stomach when a homeless man (John Robert Graham)in Los Angeles was set on fire for no reason at all last October. Is this what the young generation has come too? Is this what our society has come too? Thank goodness the police found the person responsible and emergency response was quick in getting to the scene. Even though John did not survive, people where there to help. (Shame on the EMT, fire & police of Vancouver. Oh that's right, you should have a Chief Bratton crawling up your backside to make a difference in a city.)
There are only a handful out of the millions of people in the U.S. and Canada who are willing to help; create drop in centers; establish self help programs; and what do they lack, VOLUNTEERS!!!!! Think about it.....
Stop the Recognition and Reconciliation Act. Nothing has changed.
It is felt. My point is that it is a constant fight. I can see how a person can lose hope because of the hatred and be left for dead because for some reason for indians in this culture (we share with everyone here) its allowable for us to lose hope and be left for dead. It's like we all came to some agreement about how indians behave, what we do and what is normal for us.
I guess just try to imagine that Curtis Brick was just a person and there were no excuses or justifications (poverty, broken homes, whatever it is you think indians do) to be made for why he should end up there. Imagine he was a white young suburban healthy man. Can you imagine people ignoring him being alone and drunk in the first place let alone nudging him with their boot when he is lying flat instead of a hand? Can you imagine him being dumped in an alley in the winter in the rain?
The same hatred and the same expectations is what I sense when I tell people I'm not Greek, Spanish, Italian, or whatever brownish race they think an employed successful person could be. So far no one has guessed Cree.
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