Indigenous elder Gary Moostoos was kicked out of an Edmonton mall and banned after he claims he was targeted by shopping mall security guards.
The trouble all started on October 26, 2014, when Indigenous elder and homeless outreach worker, Gary Moostoos, was sitting in the City Centre Mall’s food court.
There he was approached by two security guards while eating and they demanded his name.
When Moostoos asked why they wanted his name, one security guard reportedly stated that they had been watching Moostoos’ behaviour, saying that he looked, “suspicious.”
The security guards for the mall also accused Moostoos of already being banned from the premises, something that the Indigenous outreach worker refuted.
In fact, he claimed that the security guards routinely see him in the mall, often meeting with clients who are homeless or struggling with other social issues. Moostoos knew that they had faced similar profiling and confrontation from the mall’s security guards.
Not pleased with the way he was being treated, Moostoos asked to speak to a supervisor. She arrived promptly, ran his ID which confirmed he had not been banned.
But she still insisted that he leave the building, on account that she alleged he had been aggressive with her and her staff in the past, as well as noting that he is often seen in the mall associating with persons the security staff consider undesirable.
In another context, this looks like a perfect example of a community outreach worker doing their job (Moostoos’ job is that of an adviser at Boyle Street Community Services where he works with people who are involved with gangs or are experiencing social issues like homelessness — he is an elder to the Indigenous community in Edmonton).
Moostoos uses the Edmonton City Centre Mall as common ground to meet with clients. Moostoos alleges that at this point in the conversation, more security guards arrived and with the blessing of the surpervisor, he was led out of the building and then informed that he was banned from the premises for the next six months.
After taking to social media, on Tuesday October 28, 2014, City Centre Mall released a statement the following day that it would investigate how their security handled the incident with Moostoos, including management, “conducting an investigation that will include reviewing the engagement by security, the policies we have in place and the training we provide.”
Roughly 70 people marched into City Centre Mall on Friday, October 31, 2014, in a brief demonstration to show their disproval of Moostoos’ treatment by the mall and presented a letter to Oxford Properties which highlighted their concerns.
After receiving the letter, mall manager Olympia Trencevski apologized to the activists who had gathered to support the Indigenous elder and outreach worker.
Further, Linda Duncan, of the New Democratic Party (NDP) member for Edmonton – Strathcona, brought the issue of Moostoos’ treatment up to the speaker in Parliament on November 4, 2014, saying, “Elder Moostoos raised himself out of a life of despair on the streets to bring solace to Cree elders and health care, to victims of residential school abuse, and to the homeless, yet he was still subjected to public humiliation and is emotionally wounded.
The mall offered an apology, but apologies simply are not enough. Was this elder targeted because he looked Aboriginal? What direction was security given? Is the intention to keep the homeless and traumatized out on the street?
In response to the banning of the Indigenous elder, elder Taz Bouchier had prompted Idle No More into calling for a round dance to take place on Saturday, November 8, 2014, starting at the mall at 1:00 p.m. in the lower food court. More information can be found on this Facebook page.
Idle No More community ally, Anni Mukkala-Stinn, speaks of Gary Moostoos as a “fine Aboriginal Elder and works continuously with the homeless. He is a rock in the hope for the homeless in Edmonton. Primarily he works out of the Boyle Community support services. He is a huge asset to our city. I know him personally and to see that he has been banned for six months from our downtown core by corporate interests reeks of discrimination.”
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