Aboriginal youth asked to leave Intercity Shopping Centre

Unwanted and unwelcome.
That’s how Eddie Meekis, a 20-year-old Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School student, felt after he and some friends were kicked out of the Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay by mall security in mid-September.
Meekis, who is from Keewaywin but living in the city while attending school, said he felt targeted because of the colour of his skin.
“We weren’t doing anything wrong. We were just hanging out,” Meekis said of the Sept. 16 incident.
He said three security guards told them they would have to leave if they weren’t going to buy anything.
“My friends had already bought things,” Meekis said. “They had shopping bags.”
In order to appease the security guards, the group bought coffee and sat down in the food court.
Again, security approached them and told them they were loitering and would have to leave, Meekis said.
“I think they were being really rude to us,” he said. “I think they just wanted us out.”
The incident left Meekis frustrated.
“I was supposed to meet my aunt (at Intercity) that night,” he said. “She told me later that she was waiting for me and couldn’t find me. She couldn’t find me because I got kicked out.”
Meekis’ story is one of several DFC principal Jonathan Kakegamic heard of during the week of Sept. 13-17.
These include security approaching his students in stores and telling them they had five minutes to complete their transaction and leave, students being told they had a few minutes to finish eating in the food court before they would be asked to leave and a group of students being escorted off Intercity’s property. The students weren’t allowed to catch the city bus on Intercity’s property, Kakegamic said.
Intercity Shopping Centre general manager Tony Stapley and security supervisor Damien Julier said between Sept. 15 and 16, security did ask many youth to leave the mall, for a variety of reasons.
Based on reports he received from security, Stapley said there was a large congregation of youth around the customer service area of the mall Sept. 15 in the early evening. It is a place youth tend to gather.
“We try to be proactive and talk to them,” Stapley said. “We remind them this is private property ... but they are welcome as long as they are compliant with our code of conduct.”
Mall patrons are not allowed to loiter, spit or be profane inside and outside as well as only smoke in designated areas, according to a code of conduct handout.
“We approached a large group of youth early in the evening,” Julier said, noting it was not only Aboriginal youth who were in the group.
He said none of the patrons were shopping so they were asked to leave.
“I found a large group of them in the loading dock by Zellers just hanging out (later in the evening),” Julier said. “There’s no entrance near there, just recycling and garbage.”
Julier said when the group saw him, they scattered and ran away over the McIntyre River bridge toward the movie theatre.
Stapley said loitering has been a common problem in past, involving both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth. When there are large groups congregating and not shopping, it can lead to a poor shopping experience for other patrons.
In this case, Intercity had “concerns over the other customers,” Stapley said so security started removing people.
Neither Stapley or Julier knew of any of the other specific incidents raised.
“If (patrons) are misbehaving, they may be asked to leave,” Stapley said.
Julier said a protocol exists for escorting people off the property.
He said a person may be escorted if security feels the mall, its property or tenant merchandise may be damaged, or if a further incident may occur if the person is not removed. But there is no record of youth being escorted off the property that evening, Julier said.
Keewaytinook Okimakanak student counsellor Robbie Kakegamic’s daughter, who attends Churchill High School, was among a group of youth asked to leave Intercity Sept. 15.
“My daughter brought it to my attention,” he said. “She was out with her cousins. She told me they were sending the students out.”
This upset Robbie Kakegamic.
“The only time we take (her) to the mall is to shop,” he said. “We only go if we’re going to buy something. We don’t want her just hanging out there.”
The following night, his daughter had more shopping to do.
Robbie Kakegamic decided to go to the mall and pick up his daughter. As he arrived, he watched from his truck in the parking lot as many Aboriginal people were all leaving the mall around 8 p.m.
“My daughter and her friends came out,” he said. “I asked them if something had happened again with security.”
His daughter told him that after they had made their purchases, they stopped in the food court for drinks.
“At that point, they were told they had five minutes to finish their drinks and vacate the mall,” Robbie Kakegamic said. “They hadn’t done anything wrong. They weren’t loitering, they were shopping. I know they were really bothered by that.”
He said his daughter and her friends had a card explaining mall rules.
Robbie Kakegamic decided to get out of his vehicle and enter the mall, in part to see if security would give him any problems.
“There were three staff standing right in front of the main entrance,” he said. “It looked like they were guarding a prison.”
As he entered the mall, without a fuss, he saw an Aboriginal couple sitting on the benches in front of the customer service booth with a full cart of purchases.
“I watched as security approached them and pointed toward the corner,” Robbie Kakegamic said. “I don’t know what security said to them ... but this was an adult couple that had just done a lot of shopping. They were made to go stand in the corner. I always assumed the benches were there for sitting.”
The following day, he approached DFC school officials about what he’d seen after recognizing some of his students being removed from the mall.
Jonathan Kakegamic and others from the school and KO, met with Intercity officials including the operations manager Sept. 17. Stapley and Jonathan Kakegamic met Sept. 20.
“We’re trying to develop a relationship with the school,” Stapley said.
Jonathan Kakegamic said some good can come from these incidents, though they shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“I went (to the meetings) because my students came to me and they were really upset about what happened,” Jonathan Kakegamic said.
He said there have been ongoing issues with students at Intercity long before these incidents came to light. He said the school has never gotten a call about students being in trouble at Intercity though there are on-call workers equipped to deal with it so police don’t always need to be involved.
“I know these kids,” Jonathan Kakegamic said. “They don’t have their mom and dad here to help them with their problems. I need to take that role.”
He said Aboriginals, especially the youth, need to start speaking up, but in a positive way.
Jonathan Kakegamic said the matter will be resolved through the meetings he’s been having.
He said it would be more productive to work towards a resolution together than take a hard stand.
“If I had gone the political way, this could have been ugly,” Jonathan Kakegamic said. “We need to teach patience, teamwork, accountability and co-operation.”