Ad offering 'Native Extraction Service' condemned
Last Updated: Thursday, March 4, 2010 | 3:44 PM CT
CBC News
This online classified ad offered the free removal and relocation of aboriginal youth from parts of Winnipeg. CBC News has blurred the faces in the picture. The ad has since been pulled down. (UsedWinnipeg.com/CBC)First Nations leaders in Manitoba are expressing outrage about an online classified ad that offered to round up and "extract" aboriginal youth from parts of Winnipeg and transport them like wild animals to reserves or an area of the city where many aboriginal people live.
The ad, titled "Native Extraction Service," was posted on the website UsedWinnipeg.com, but was taken down by 1:38 p.m. CT on Thursday.
'The kids out there are told they're not wanted. This is unacceptable.'—MKO Grand Chief David Harper
Underneath the title was a picture of three aboriginal males, who look to be in their mid to late teens.
The text of the ad read: "Have you ever had the experience of getting home to find those pesky little buggers hanging outside your home, in the back alley or on the corner???
"Well fear no more, with my service I will simply do a harmless relocation. With one phone call I will arrive and net the pest, load them in the containment unit (pickup truck) and then relocate them to their habitat.
"It doesn't matter if they need to be dropped off on Salter (Street, in Winnipeg's North End) or the rez, I will go that extra mile. The North End of Winnipeg is where many city dwellers of First Nations descent live.
"My service is free because I want to live in the same city you do, a clean one," the ad said.
Ad is a hate crime: aboriginal leaders
MKO Grand Chief David Harper (right) and lawyer Louis Harper condemned the ad as a hate crime during a Thursday news conference. (Sheila North-Wilson/CBC)On Thursday, First Nations leaders at Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), an organization representing most First Nations communities in northern Manitoba, said they want police to investigate the ad as a hate crime.
"The way it's worded, 'to relocate them to their habitat.' Here we are trying to teach our kids better. The kids out there are told they're not wanted, said MKO Grand Chief David Harper.
"This is unacceptable," he added.
The website where the ad was posted is owned by a Victoria-based company called Black Press, which owns a separate enterprise called UsedEverywhere.com.
That business operates 47 online classified sites, including the UsedWinnipeg.com site.
On Thursday, UsedEverywhere.com apologized for the ad, which had been posted at midnight on Wednesday.
General manager Tish Hill said it was pulled after users deemed it offensive. Hill said that although the company conducts active monitoring of ads that get placed, offensive material does slip through on occasion.
While Hill said she would not reveal to CBC News who posted the ad, she said the information would be turned over to police should they choose to investigate.