Dawson Creek BC, July 16/16, One Year Anniversary Ceremony of Slain Site C Dam Protestor

Jun 17, 2016

Dawson Creek BC, July 16/16, One Year Anniversary Ceremony of Slain Site C Dam Protestor

Removing the Mask- Anniversary of Indigenous Site C Dam Resister Shot and Killed by RCMP 

On July 16, 2015, Dawson Creek RCMP shot and killed a masked man outside a Site C Dam project information session. They handcuffed him and he bled to death on the street. Winks (James) McIntyre, was a quiet man who kept to himself. In the 2 years leading up to his death he got involved in online activism with ANONYMOUS First Nations International,  an online group of politically motivated hackers. His presence around the information session was the only physical protest he ever made. To this date, there has been very little news coverage on his disturbing and quite possibly politically motivated killing.

On the one year anniversary of his death, his cousin, long-time land defender, Keith La Riviere, will be hosting a memorial to honour Winks. All Drummers are welcome to sing, pray and smudge.

 

Keith La Riviere Interview Transcription.

 

Keith
Keith La Riviere

Billie
What Nation?

 

Keith
Cree. Northern Alberta. I’m talking to you today about my cousin James McIntyre. Jimmy. Winks, we called him. He was a special guy. He didn’t have a lot of friends. He didn’t hang out (other accounts say he was 48). He never was drunk. Never had a girlfriend. He was 34 when he died. He stayed with his mom all his life. He stayed with his mom, helped with her needs.

Jimmy spent most of his life never wanting to be in the spotlight. Jimmy only made one statement in his life when he went to that Site C meeting in Dawson Creek, July 16, 2015, to make that statement. And within 2 minutes of getting a report that something had gone on inside the meeting, the police drove up and shot him without taking the time to address the situation. They just shoot, talk later. Jimmy went there with reasons of the environment and of the land. People that use that land and reasons they want it to be there. He was shot in the crotch and left on the ground to bleed to death, and that doesn’t take long when a major artery’s been severed. Did the police know that, I’m not sure. Did they take any actions towards it? No.

 

Billie
Is there any investigation into his death?

Keith

There was a police inquiry. We haven’t seen any result of that.

He’d only been on his own for 2 years. He moved to an apartment only 2 doors away from his mother’s, the original apartment where he’d probably lived for the last 10 years or so. He got into computers there and found out about online activism. He got into the anonymous group and then through communication and the computer, he was going to protest that Site C. He was an environmentalist. He wanted to do his part, like we all do, to protect Mother Earth.
 

I’m not sure about him being a part of the protest, I think he was being a protest that day. He never wanted to make anything more of to tell the world that he didn’t agree with the Site C Dam project. Did Dawson Creek not want Site C protestors there? Was that the philosophy behind his shooting? Were the police officers sent there to make sure we didn’t say anything?

 

Jimmy is the number one protester in this country. Jimmy gave his life for all of us. Jimmy-Winks, his family name, gave his life for the environment we want to protect today. Don’t let his dream die with his death. We all still have the same fresh air to breathe. The same clean water.

 

I’ve been an activist for a long time. I was in Oka, Quebec in 1991 (correction 1990), supporting the Oka Crisis, supporting the Natives, the Mohawks in the Oka Crisis. I’ve done a lot of support work since then.

 

Jimmy everyday now asks me in his death, “What am I doing about this?  What am I going to do? Are you going to let them kill me?”, he asks me, in my dreams, he comes to me and asks me “Are you going to let them kill me? Is this the end of it? Are they just going to be able to kill me and it leads to nothing. Your an activist Keith, your going to do something. Your going to have a walk. Your going to make people come and pay attention. That’s my job here. That’s what my works about today. My last job. Jims philosophy, why he was there, not who he was or the reasons he had to go protect Mother Earth. The dangers of the corporations bringing us closer and closer to our end. He was going to make a statement, which he did, and we are going to do that. Jim is the number one protestor in all of Canada, and the United States. He died for his environment. He made a statement and name. And now I want us to remember who he was and why he did that. Not that he was just an anonymous. He was my cousin. He was a person. He was Winks. He was a loved human being, he was a friend to everyone. He didn’t have a hard word. He wasn’t hard at all. He never been intoxicated. He wasn’t that person.

 

But to let him die. In front of a restaurant in Dawson Creek? I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to let his memory lie there. I’m going to pick it up like a dropped feather. I’m going to sing songs, and I’m going to pray and I’m going to smudge everyone that’s there. Thats my job. To remember my cousin in a good way. Not as a mask, but as a loved human being. I loved him, he loved me. He loved his environment, and I’m going to protect it with him.

For more information, please go to "Jimmy's Page" Memorial on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/975072915945430/988740664578655/?notif_t...