Racial stereotyping of indigenous people in the Canadian media: A comparative analysis of two water pollution incidents

This article examines the discourse surrounding issues affecting Indigenous peoples within the Canadian mainstream media. We compare the coverage of two cases of water poisonings--one in a primarily-white town and the other in an Indigenous- community--in 282 newspaper articles from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and. Windspeaker. We show that the dominant coverage of these two very similar cases diverged significantly. The Indigenous workers in charge of the water supply were regarded as incompetent and incapable to fill their position while the entire community was described as drunk, lazy, helpless, and perpetually dependent on government aide. By contrast, white workers were seen as relatable and in command of their erroneous actions, while the residents of the town were described simply as the victims of an unfortunate tragedy. Such reporting fails to contextualize the events or point out the injustices of Canadian colonialism, thus contributing to the perpetuation of these injustices. Cet article examine le discours sur les questions touchant les peuples autochtones dans les medias grand public canadiens. Nous comparons la couverture de deux cas d'intoxication par l'eau - l'un dans une ville principalement blanche et l'autre dans une communaute autochtone--dans 282 articles de journaux du Toronto Star, du Globe and Mail, du National Post et de Windspeaker. Nous montrons que la couverture dominante de ces deux cas tres similaires a diverge de maniere significative. Les travailleurs autochtones charges de l'approvisionnement en eau etaient consideres comme incompetents et incapables de remplir leur poste, tandis que toute la communaute etait decrite comme ivre, paresseuse, impuissante et perpetuellement dependante de l'aide du gouvernement. En revanche, les travailleurs blancs etaient percus comme pouvant etre racontes et maitrisant leurs actions erronees, tandis que les habitants de la ville etaient simplement decrits comme les victimes d'une tragedie malheureuse. De tels reportages ne parviennent pas a contextualiser les evenements ou a souligner les injustices du colonialisme canadien, contribuant ainsi a la perpetuation de ces injustices.
INTRODUCTION Beginning on May 13th, 2000, Walkerton, a majority-white community in Southern Ontario (Statistics Canada, 2016), experienced the worst case of Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) poisoning in North America's history [...]