opinion

Maxwell Johnson, left, a Heiltsuk First Nation member who was arrested trying to open an account, and Chief Marilyn Slett hold artwork Johnson created for display in the bank's main Vancouver branch, in 2022.

If you ask any visibly Indigenous person if they’ve been followed around a store or a mall by security guards for no reason, chances are they’ll tell you that it has happened to them.

We call this “shopping while Indigenous,” and nothing can make you feel smaller, angrier, or lesser-than. Being singled out due to your race doesn’t just make you feel insecure and on edge – it makes you feel as though you don’t belong.

Everybody has a story about it, Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett told me. If it didn’t happen in a mall, it happened in a restaurant – where a server forge

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