Reviewing Sherene Razack’s Article, “Freezing Deaths in Saskatchewan”

Sherene Razack’s article, “It Happened More Than Once Freezing Deaths in Saskatchewan,” highlights the racial, spatial economies that result in freezing deaths of aboriginal people in Saskatchewan. According to Razack, the colonial settlers devise ways to dispose of the native settlers from the colonial state to rightfully lay claim to the territory. Dumping Aboriginal people to the city’s outskirts is a measure arising from the colonialists’ necessity to uphold forceful lines in the colonial city. Razack examines inquests that look into the freezing deaths of various aboriginal youth, concluding that the events that led to their death, along with the subsequent inquests, are a representation of the settlers’ devaluation of Aboriginal life, which the law creates and supports. By pointing out the events that led to the freezing deaths of the Aboriginal young adults as well as the deprivations and adversities that the Aboriginal populations experience in Saskatchewan, Razack shows the unethical colonial perspective that considers Aboriginal death as a predictable end of a troublesome population. The deaths of such natives are seen as the final installment of wasted lives.

Razack begins by pointing out the neglect and constraints that Aboriginal populations normally go through in and around the city. Aboriginal persons are placed in reserve settlements that have impoverished conditions, and the few that are interacting in settler spaces from necessitated incursions, face stringent policing (Razack 2014). Police heavily patrol areas of the city where the Aboriginal population is majority leading to the evictions of these people taking place as a police duty. Resultantly, it has led to tensions accumulating and rising overtime between the police and aboriginal people. The tension originates from settlers’ fear of the natives uprising but is currently enhanced by the deep-rooted mistrust of the police by the aboriginal population due to over-policing as well as their failure to offer their services when required.

The inquests to the freezing death cases of the aboriginal youth portray police neglect and harassment as the reason that led to their death, alongside the colonialists’ capitalist system of dealing with the surplus humanity that threatens to disrupt the social order of the economy and property. The Aboriginal population is considered surplus humanity in Saskatchewan facing intense policing, which leads to their evictions and expulsion from the city and later on death. Still, the colonialists view these harmful acts as waste disposal (Razack 2014). Razack mentions the testimonies of the police and white settlers during the inquests are falsified to hide any wrongdoing by the police when they drop off the aboriginal people in areas of sub-zero temperature leading to their death. The inquests also do not conclude by placing blame on racial tension. Rather the aboriginals’ cultural practices are seen as the reason for their conflicts with the police, leading to their arrests and police harassment leading to their deaths[1].

Indeed, Razack’s claims that racial spatiality led to the freezing deaths of Aboriginals in Saskatchewan are valid. The police involvement that resulted in these freezing deaths is a reflection of settlers’ dehumanization of Aboriginal lives and their colonial drive to achieve a liberal society without natives.

Bibliography

Razack, Sherene. 2014. “Freezing Deaths in Saskatchewan.” 52-80.

[1] Commissioner Wright heading the 1999 Report of the Task Force on the Criminal Justice System and Its Impact on the Indian and Metis People of Alberta stated cultural practices including failing to tell the police what they want to hear as reasons for Aboriginal problems.