I’m pumped to see how many ppl appreciate my art enough to follow me. The burning cop car belongs to the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force occupying parts of my homeland and neighbouring territories. I’ll tell you why I want them to burn:

The smal city of Val D’or in northern Quebec is sitting on unceded Algonquin territory, and is frequented by Eeyou/Eenou folks (coastal and inland James Bay Cree folks (Algonquin’s northern neighbours). It’s where our two territories start to meet.

A few years ago the SQ in Val D’or were met with allegations of sexual assault by Algonquin and Cree women either in the area, or from surrounding reserves. Despite an external inquiry, nothing ever came of it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/quebec-investigation-alleged-abuse-aboriginal-women-1.3577527

The town next to my home community (Maniwaki) has an SQ station, and our rez has its own police force. So SQ have no jurisdiction in our community. But bc Maniwaki is so close, SQ has plenty of chances to harass community members when they’re in the french town next door

My dad has a lot of stories about cops. But I found out that last year, while dealing w bouts of vertigo and other health problems, he was punched by a french dude while doing shopping. SQ questioned the other guy for 20 mins and let him go. They kept my dad til 11:30 at night &

every time he expressed that he was upset with being held there for questioning (being the victim) they threatened to detain him for longer/charge him for something ridiculous that didn’t apply. They told him “you’re in our jurisdiction now. We can keep you here if we want”

I should’ve planned this thread out. But Quebec has a weird brand of racist settler-colonialism bc it’s tied to their identity as “oppressed” francophones in an otherwise anglo country. so if u arent a white quebecer (esp a rural french white quebecer) you’re in the way

because you undermine Quebec’s claim to sovereignty from the rest of Canada. First Nations groups whose territory stretches between provinces also undermine that. Their police force is just glorified cronies that look to harass ntv folks on their own homelands (like most others)

so all this babbling to say hating the SQ is v much tied to my experiences as a ntv in Quebec. Especially someone who’s moved between Algonquin and Cree communities (the abitibi/val d’or/james bay region) for most of their life

SQ isn’t the only thing I hate about this ugly province. But the police force is so linked to maintaining and reinforcing settler-colonial occupations in rural qc. with no accountability bc french quebecers (even independent inquiry committees) will always protect them first

Anyways I just wanted to provide context on the car itself. But plz use it as a stand in for your local/most hated police forces bc they’re all on stolen land and they all deserve to burn

I actually have so many other reasons to hate the SQ but the Benadryl I took for an allergic reaction makes me feel like I have one brain cell bouncing around in my head. I’ll source articles in this thread tmrw when I have more energy