Idle No More participant target of hate mail
Garden River women notifies police after receiving 'threatening messages'
CBC News
Posted: Feb 7, 2013 10:19 AM ET
Last Updated: Feb 7, 2013 11:17 AM ET
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A woman from the Garden River First Nation says she has received death threats by mail following her involvement with the Idle No More movement.
Lesley Belleau said the package contained threatening messages and obscene photos.
"I think it's completely inappropriate and actually quite frightening,” she said.
Belleau said the correspondence that came in the mail contained newspaper articles, a picture of Grand Chief Sean Atleo, drawings of guns and penises, along “with threatening messages to me all over the letter, such as, 'the only good indian is a dead indian.'"
Belleau then contacted police.
'Take it very seriously'
Sault Ste. Marie Constable Sonny Spina said the criminal investigations unit is working with the Anishinabek police to identify who sent the package.
"We take it very seriously and we are going to do our best to bring it to a successful conclusion,” he said.
Spina says there are at least two incidents known to the Sault police, involving packages sent through the mail.
But Belleau said she has heard of several more.
"The letters are out there. People aren't reporting,” she said. “There were many people who commented on my Facebook posting that they also received threatening letters and didn't report it.”
Belleau added the package won't end her involvement with Idle No More, a movement that gained momentum back in December when Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence went on a liquids-only diet in Ottawa.
Spence staged her hunger strike to draw attention to treaty and policy issues facing aboriginal people in Canada.
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