- N
- T
- A
Please forgive me in advance IF ANY OF THIS IS DISJOINTED IN THIS STORY AS A WRITER...AS A WRITER, I DO HAVE PRIDE IN MY WORK BUT FOR YEARS B/C OF THIS BULLYING, I HAVE SUCH SEVERE PTSD THAT I CAN ONLY READ IN SHORT BURSTS, NO LONGER CAN REALLY WRITE AND CANNOT EVEN READ BOOKS...as I have SUCH SEVERE PTSD from ALL OF THE RACISM AND BULLYING FOR BEING ME HERE THAT THE COMBINATION OF THAT WITH NO DOCTOR HERE (DUE TO THE DOCTOR SHORTAGE AND MEDICAL ABUSE FOR BEING INDIGENOUS), NO MONEY FOR HELP FOR MY CHRONIC PAIN AND FATIGUE, AND GENERALLY JUST TRYING TO HANG ON AT THE AGE OF ALMOST 53....THAT IT TAKES ALL I HAVE TO WRITE ALL OF THIS.....
Hello, this is Rebekah and I’m asking for something MAJOR and I’m looking for a miracle (as the Grateful Dead would say)… for my 53rd birthday. FIRST, I WANT TO SAY THAT IT TAKES A LOT OF COURAGE FOR ME TO SHARE THIS STORY AND TO ASK FOR HELP! BUT I HAVE TO! PLEASE READ ALL (THANKS IN ADVANCE...ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS, NOT YELLING!) SO YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND THE EXTREME NATURE OF THE SITUATION AND MY STORY!!!
My tires were slashed back in December when I got a note parked outside of church around Christmas saying, "Dirty Indian Freak: GET OUT OF HERE!" and that was in Victoria. I did get a replacement tires for the tires that were slashed, but they were only meant to be temporary and I could not afford decent ones.
I need new tires to commute to a new town over an hour away (not saying where for protection and other reasons) which I am not going to stay here just in case the wrong person looks at this , and I AM COURAGEOUSLY trying to start a new life and to create a new life there. And that cost $1000. Greg and I need about $6000 to be able to fully move and we want to do that within this year and our goal is to be out of here by March 1 of next year. We need your urgent help.
Greg works EIGHTY HOURS A WEEK but it is hardly enough for our expensive rent and b/c I cannot find ANY WORK due to being ostracized, targeted, bullied and labeled and because this area is so insidiously snobby, hateful and racist.
I carry the deep pain and GRIEF OF LOSING MY FORMER COUNTRY (AMERICA) DUE TO FASCISM of leaving my country under extreme duress and political violence only to come here to THIS PART of Canada and experience so much hate that I don’t even have words for the hate because the bullying and hate has been that extreme.
(I EMPHASIZE THIS IN ALL CAPS B/C I AM VERY PROUD TO BE A NEW CANADIAN, AND I KNOW NOT ALL OF CANADA IS LIKE WHERE I CHOSE TO LIVE...OF COURSE AT THE TIME I IMMIGRATED HERE...GREG AND I HAD NO IDEA HOW VICIOUSLY ANTI INDIGENOUS IT WAS, THOUGH WE KNOW THERE IS INDIGENOUS RACISM EVERYWHERE...AND WE KNOW THAT THE EAST COAST IS THE BEST, BUT WE CANNOT PHYSICALLY AND IN MANY OTHER WAYS AND REASONS MOVE OUT THERE, BUT WE KNOW THAT THE TOWN I AM ASKING FOR MONEY AND TRYING TO RAISE $7,000 FOR IS NOT EVIL AND THEY HAVE WELCOMED ME IN LOVING AND BEAUTIFUL WAYS!)
I already had PTSD from surviving political violence in the States, but now my PTSD is so much worse for being targeted, abused and bullied by: Churches, Schools (Camosun and Royal Roads), Sooke Fall Fair, Sooke Folk Music Society and ALL MEDICAL FACILITIES DUE TO INDIGENOUS ABUSE HERE...SINCE I HAVE BEEN SO BADLY MEDICALLY ABUSED HERE AS AN INDIGENOUS IDENTIFYING PERSON WHO DRESSES FLAMBOYANTLY, I AM TERRIFIED I WILL DIE IN A MEDICAL FACILITY AND NOBODY CARES! SO, IF I CAN GET PAST MY SEVERE PTSD, WRITER'S BLOCK AND ANXIETY, I CAN GET THE ENERGY TO WRITE TO OVER 600 LEADERS ACROSS CANADA FOR THE BULLYING AND PERSECUTION THAT IS HAPPENING TO ME HERE.
I have been horrifically persecuted in every way, which is spiritual, emotional, cultural, and in racist ways… and hated on and bullied, and followed, and runoff the road and medically, abused and tortured until basically there’s nothing left for my mental health or for hope for the future.
The toll that it has taken on me has been great
For those who don’t know, I survived extreme abuse and violence growing up and survived that and domestic violence and rape and sexual assault and met my wonderful husband, and he has been on this very long journey with me to create a new life
In the past four years, I have been bullied from day, one in Canada and as much as I love Canada and I am still proud to be a new
Canadian, this particular area is known for its bullying culture and is known to indigenous people for its extensive degradation and dehumanization and medical abuse.
Because I am flamboyant and Indigenous and people have bullied me online because I have stood up to them in a non violent way to meet their Trumpian, fascist hate and ANTI INDIGENOUS RACISM...I HAVE BEEN HORRIFICALLY BULLIED AND ABUSED AND NOBODY IN THESE THREE TOWNS (VICTORIA IS TECHNICALLY CONSIDERED A CITY BUT OPERATES LIKE A VERY SMALL, INSIDIOUS, CLIQUEY, RACIST, INCESTUOUS TOWN) and this is a bullying town (Sooke, Victoria and Langford) and a bullying culture where I live, and I was trying to get out of the states after surviving political violence (and if you want to know, specifics about that, I can tell you privately, but I don’t feel comfortable stating what type of violence that was here) and knowing that I had to get out of my country… then I come to Victoria, where I am bullied for being me here and hated it on because I have stood up time and time again for Indigenous rights whether it is me or someone else. I got put online by some evil, racist rich white kids from Oak Bay who followed me at Mayfair Mall for 45 minutes and called me a "Dirty Indian" and when I stood up for myself, they put it online, but did not say that THEY were the ones accosting me. They NEVER GIVE THAT STORY, and in this area, THERE IS NEVER A SIDE TO THE STORY IF ONE IS INDIGENOUS! ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT, AN OUTSPOKEN WOMEN AND A TRUTH TELLER, AN EMPATH WHO SEES AND WHO HAS CLAIRVOYANT KNOWLEDGE FROM MY ANCESTORS...AND I AM ESPECIALLY HATED HERE FOR DRESSING FLAMBOYANTLY.
Many of you who may only know me on a very surface level from Facebook or may not know me at all may not know that I am an Indigenous rights activist for 38 years from the States. I grew up in Washington D.C., grew up as a poor, neglected, horrifically abused kid in an alcoholic home and survived sexual, physical, emotional, verbal and many other forms of abuse. The only reason I did not commit suicide after trying to twice is my English Teacher, Mrs. Jaworski, who did not give up on me and told me to start protesting peacefully and learn about Civil Disobedience. That started when I was 15.
I met other activists down in D.C. across from the White House, was ordained by my grandfather and Creator when a book landed on my lap and flew across the aisles (literally) about Leonard Peltier and the Second Battle of Wounded Knee and the American Indian Movement. I never looked back. Then I walked across the country for Indigenous Rights after inviting the Walk Across America to my college, and walked across the country from New York to Nevada until my feet bled into the ground.
Later on, I became a National Barack Obama Delegate and a National Bernie Sanders Delegate for the State of Washington where I lived for 15 years to be exact. I have been on THOUSANDS of actions in D.C., New Hampshire (where I lived for seven years) and Seattle before I moved here. However, my authentic power has been too much here for these people. I have never come up against more hate than here. Though I worked HEAVILY with Bernie and was extremely well known and outspoken and loved by only a few who were allies to Indigenous people...I was HEAVILY silenced, threatened and crucified until finally I was threatened in a violent manner of which I can tell you about privately, but for my protection will not do so now.
Here are just a few things that have happened to me, but considering that I do not go out much anymore, b/c I am bullied about 15 times an hour if I am out for an hour or more, and that equates to about 45 times if I am out for more than three hours, and this makes me feel like a persecuted and crucified person IN EVERY WAY and that is how intimidated and threatened the bullies here are by me for being a proud Indigenous woman, wearing bright colours and bright clothes, b/c I speak the truth about Indigenous Rights and I stand up for my own personhood and my authenticity.
So here are just a few examples of what has been done to me:
- EXTREME BULLYING, HATE AND RACISM: I have been called a "Dirty Indian" in parking lots, grocery stores, and medical facilities.
- TAG TEAMING: THE ENTIRE TOWNS OF SOOKE, LANGFORD AND VICTORIA STEP IN AND JOIN IN ON THE BULLYING AND ABUSE: When this happens (the above) NOBODY stands up for me. IN FACT, THEY JOIN IN. EVEN THE MAYOR OF THIS TOWN just stood there when four white men surrounded my car and told me that I "better take my Mohawk flag down or else" and when I told them they had small genitalia syndrome, they got more mad b/c they cannot handle being shown up, and their harassment and bullying became worse and they said, "You only get two days a year as an "Indian" (I guess they meant Indigenous") when they said that, but it was meant to be derogatory b/c they are white racists) and they said that is on "Truth and Reconciliation Day" and "Indigenous Day". They said that I should be glad I am even "allowed to be me and live" here, which I took as a direct threat. The Mayor saw all of this and did nothing.
- ABUSE FROM SCHOOLS: As a student, the Director of the International Program at Camosun abused me psychologically and racially and mentally by: Denying services to me, telling me I will "never make it here as an American Immigrant" and much, more more. He stalked me and put me everywhere on the dark web online.
- MEDICAL ABUSE: Four years ago when I first moved here, I had been tortured in a hospital for TWELVE OR MORE HOURS when I had a severe second degree burn. I told Island Health and many more people in the Canadian system about it. NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. I am an activist and a writer. So believe me, I speak up. B/c I have spoken up, I have been retaliated against, which has caused me to be abused even more....so at the end of January and three months ago in February....I:
- Was medically abused when I had bacterial pneumonia by the urgent care facility in Sooke, in which the doctor told me I was not "dark enough to be Indigenous and I do not like Indigenous anyway" and when I demanded to talk to a Manager to report her racism, the Manager and all of the staff there were racist too and they all started calling me the "c" word and called me Indian trash, and then I was ganged up on by the people in the town who were waiting for medical care themselves in the lobby (There is a huge medical shortage here and it is even worse for Indigenous people here) and they all verbally and psychologically, mentally, racially and spiritually attacked me and said, "We do not want dirty Indians in our town" and called me a dirty Indian, the "c" word, the "B" word and much more, and then a woman from the lobby followed me out to the parking lot with her TODDLERS and physically threatened me and when I told her I am not afraid of her and to leave me alone, she got scared I would do something (As an Indigenous Rights Activist, I do not truth police, especially after my political violence incident in Seattle) and she posted me online, b/c the people here are cliquey, cowardly, evil racists and she said that I was a crazy person when it was HER that threatened me...and then everyone believes the evil bully....
- I was also abused by a place that was supposed to be "anti Racist", and just for asking about labwork protocols in a nice way there, I was ATTACKED PSYCHICALLY, RACIALLY AND EMOTIONALLY AND EVERY OTHER WAY and told I was a "Dirty Indian who asks too much and your medical care is being taken away" by the "Medical Director" if you want to call her that. She is a hateful racist. I was left for dead by them too. It was a white Telus Video Doctor who saved my life. I was EXTREMELY ILL.
- SOOKE FALL FAIR: I won almost EVERY writing category in my last ditch attempt to prove myself as a writer, and to be part of the community here. I won ALMOST EVERY WRITING CATEGORY, but when I went to cash in my prizes, I WAS DENIED THE MONEY B/C THE PEOPLE WHO ORGANIZED THE FAIR (NOT THE JUDGES, I STILL WANT TO THANK THE JUDGES, B/C I AM NOT ALLOWED TO MEET THEM, BUT THEY WERE THE ONES THAT AWARDED PRIZES TO ME) it said, "HOW DARE YOU, REBEKAH?!! THERE IS NO INDIGENOUS DISCRIMINATION IN SOOKE!" AND WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I TRIED TO STAND UP TO THEM, THEY REFUSED TO PAY ME THE AMOUNT I HAVE BEEN OWED. IN FACT, IN GOT PUT ON A TROPHY, BUT THEY HAVE REFUSED TO LET ME TOUCH OR GIVE ME THE TROPHY!!
- SOOKE FALL FAIR: I was abused by the Sooke Fall Fair after performing when I told them every time what I was going to read and perform, and after my second performance, I got ganged up on (This is after the Director told me he would help me with a job, only for me to be told by him after I thought that he was my friend that, "I do not appreciate you flying your Mohawk Flag in people's faces, certainly not mine" and this was after he said he was an ally to Residential school descendants and survivors. I am a Residential School descendant from my grandfather....) by the white people there who surrounded me...several scary, racist white men told me that "We do not appreciate you talking about Indigenous racism in your songs and poetry when there is none" and then followed me out, called me and said there was a group of them that wanted to meet me at Whiffin Spit Park and I refused to go. That is when I was told I was no longer welcome to the church b/c "I cannot follow white people's rules b/c Indigenous people are too wild". YEP!
- CHURCH ABUSE AND RACISM: I have been told by every CHURCH HERE THAT NOT ONLY AM IN NOT WELCOME, BUT THAT I SHOULD LEAVE B/C INDIGENOUS PEOPLE "HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PROBLEM HERE, ESPECIALLY ACTIVISTS, AND YOU ALL ASK TOO MUCH"....CHURCH, INCLUDING THE CATHOLIC PRIEST AT ST. ROSE OF LIMA HERE IN SOOKE THAT WHEN HE FIRST MET ME ON EASTER THAT, "I GENERALLY DO NOT LIKE ACTIVISTS WHO ARE INDIGENOUS AND YOU LOOK FREAKY SO I AM NOT GOING TO PRAY FOR YOU"...YEP!!!
- I continue to be bullied, run off the road, denied services, and AM GENERALLY NOT ALLOWED TO BE A PERSON HERE.
- GREG WORKS 80 HOURS A WEEK AND HE IS TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING HE CAN DO TO PROTECT ME.
All of this has caused tremendous pain for me in every way and despite my four college degree, I haven’t been able to get a job or create a new life because of the online bullying that is relentless and is what I consider a hate crime over and over and over again
If you don’t believe any of what I’m saying, you can ask Greg and he will tell you that everything I am saying is true just in case you think I am exaggerating, which I am definitely not.
We need your urgent help.
Please help me have hope for the future and help to pull me out out of such extreme depression that I don’t even have words for it as a writer, and I haven’t been able to write due to writer's BLOCK and severe PTSD and deep emotional pain.....
If I can get to the new town (I have made connections and contacts and they love me there and there are plenty of Indigenous that I have made connections with there) I plan to:
- Get involved as an Indigenous Leader in Canadian Politics and for that Nation (Again, for protection reasons, I am not going to say which Nation or place that is).
- I plan on getting a job here.
- I plan to, at the very least, do homeless outreach on a voluntary basis for the Indigenous community there.
- I plan on writing three books about my horrific and bullying experience here.
- I plan on writing to over 600 Canadian leaders about the way I have been bullied and targeted here.
So true, funny how it seems
Always in time, but never in line for dreams
Head over heels when toe to toe
This is the sound of my soul
This is the sound
I bought a ticket to the world
But now I've come back again
Why do I find it hard to write the next line?
Oh, I want the truth to be said
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue
Dissolve the nerves that have just begun
Listening to Marvin (all night long)
This is the sound of my soul
This is the sound
Always slipping from my hands
Sand's a time of its own
Take your seaside arms and write the next line
Oh, I want the truth to be known
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
I bought a ticket to the world
But now I've come back again
Why do I find it hard to write the next line?
Oh, I want the truth to be said
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
I know this much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
Know this much is true
Huh, huh, huh, huh-uh, huh
Know this much is true
This much is true
This much is true
I know, I know, I know this much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
This much is true
I know this much is true
Organizer
Rebekah La Sala
Organizer