Aboriginal Eyewitness to Murder of Bingo Dawson Threatened by Vancouver Police

The following article has been supplied by Kevin Annet. I first came into contact with Kevin after I was on the Tony Legend show on Radio Manchester on Line in the autumn of 2010. Kevin was also a contributor that night and after the show we spoke and have been in communication ever since.

Indigenous Rights is not just important to HumanRightsTV but is the inspiration behind its creation and the work is dedicated by the team to Indigenous peoples everywhere and specifically to the memory of Aunty Maureen Watson and the Indigenous Australians. Therefore we are very pleased to help support the voice of the indigenous people in Canada.

This article is disturbing because, as an Englishman, there is a perception of Canadians of being everything Americans espouse to be. The idea that police beat up a person and he subsequently dies from his injuries would probably just receive a nod of the head if it was reported from the U.S.A. but that this story emanates from Vancouver is a bit of a shocker. But then we are talking about the abuse of indigenous peoples and that is a story which is consistent throughout all of the world originally settled by the British Empire.

The key campaign Kevin works on is the abuse of children in church schools. I know from my time in Australia that this same story is repeated there. The abduction of indigenous Australian children, as a matter of state policy, and their "training" in church run schools was the arena of dreadful abuse and suffering. There is evidence that this practice was funded by church organisations based in the U.K. and so as British citizens it simply is not good enough for us to say this is an Australian or Canadian matter.

Indigenous peoples suffered every form of genocide defined by the United Nations at the hands of our ancestors. Further, the wealth of our countries, in part, a great part, and the comfort of our lives today rests on the back of our historic exploitation of indigenous peoples in order to gain control of the resources in their lands. There is no disconnection from this past, there is no separation from this shame and there is no escaping our responsibility today to see that justice is not given but delivered to the indigenous peoples of our planet.

Jack Adams
Tokyo 2011

"I gave Kevin Annett his Indian name, Eagle Strong Voice, in 2004 when I adopted him into our Anishinabe Nation. He carries that name proudly because he is doing the job he was sent to do, to tell his people of their wrongs. He speaks strongly and with truth. He speaks for our stolen and murdered children. I ask everyone to listen to him and welcome him." Chief Louis Daniels - Whispers Wind Elder, Turtle Clan, Anishinabe Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Aboriginal Eyewitness to Murder of Bingo Dawson Threatened by Vancouver Police
A Special report by Kevin D. Annett

Johnny Bingo Dawson

February 10, 2011:
Vancouver, Canada The sole witness to the deadly beating of a front line indigenous activist by policemen last year in Vancouver says he's been told he'll be arrested if he speaks about it. Rick Lavallee of the Cree Nation claims that a Vancouver policeman came to his home last week and threatened to have him arrested if Rick persisted in his claim that he witnessed a group of Vancouver policemen beat activist Johnny Bingo Dawson so badly that he died two days later, on December 6, 2009. In a videotaped interview yesterday in Vancouver, Rick recalled, I got threatened by a police sergeant ... and he came to my place and he asked me what I knew happened about Johnny Bingo and he said he didn't believe me. Then he told me he could arrest me ... He asked me if I had any papers about Johnny Bingo and he asked me about Kevin Annett's files. When asked about what he witnessed happen to Bingo, Rick said, I seen four police officers beat him up behind the police station, one sergeant and some rookies. This is sickening what they're doing now to people.

Rick Lavallee far left Kevin Annett far right

Another aboriginal witness, who wishes to remain unnamed after hearing of Rick's harassment, stated today, They said Bingo died of being drunk but I seen him the day before he died and he was sober. He was hurting too much from that beating they gave him to drink. He had front teeth missing, his shoulder was out of joint, his face was all bloody and his nose got broken. He said some cops did it to him. The Vancouver Coroner's office took five months to issue their report on Bingo's death. Their report cites as his cause of death "alcohol withdrawal". The accompanying toxicology report, however, states that no alcohol or drugs were found in Bingo's blood. Bingo Dawson was a targeted man. A survivor of systematic torture at Anglican and United Church residential schools, he won the hatred of local police by regularly speaking out about their brutality and racism against Indians. He also led protests and occupations of downtown Vancouver churches to demand the return of children killed in Indian residential schools. I personally saw a Vancouver police sergeant threaten Bingo at the corner of Main and Hastings, about two months before he died. The cop said to Bingo, "You're a fucking troublemaker and people like you go missing." Perhaps this was the same police sergeant who recently threatened to arrest Rick Lavallee if he continues to speak about Bingo's fatal beating. The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) has been sent copies of Rick's statement and will be asked to investigate the apparent involvement of Vancouver police in the murder of Johnny Bingo Dawson: and many other native people. More people die in police custody in Vancouver than in any city in Canada - and most of the victims are aboriginal. ITCCS investigators will be working across Canada starting in early March to gather evidence for possible criminal indictments against policemen, church and government officials. The ITCCS de jure proceedings will commence on September 12, 2011 in London, England, coinciding with local ITCCS forums across Canada and the world. For more information see: www.itccs.org (still under construction) and contact the ITCCS at genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca 10 February 2011 .............................................................................................................................. See the evidence of Genocide in Canada at www.hiddennolonger.com Watch Kevin's award-winning documentary film UNREPENTANT on his website www.hiddenfromhistory.org "We will bring to light the hidden works of darkness and drive falsity to the bottomless pit. For all doctrines founded in fraud or nursed by fear shall be confounded by Truth." - Kevin's ancestor Peter Annett, writing in The Free Inquirer, October 17, 1761, just before being imprisoned by the English crown for "blasphemous libel"