Bill Wilson interview on Metis experiences of RCMP discrimination, brutality and retaliation as well as discrimination in the welfare system and post-secondary education

Abstract from the Gabriel Dumont Institute:

"Bill was born in Lac La Biche, Alberta, 1934. His father was three-quarters Sioux, from the U.S. His father and mother broke up when Bill was young. He was raised by First Nations people west of Calgary. When Bill was 14 years old he moved to Edson, Alberta, and worked in bush camps. Bill also did some construction work in his life. Bill discusses his negative attitude toward the RCMP."

Excerpt from Interview, Page 2:

"Oh, it was the R.C.M.P. that got me started in the Indian organization, Metis organization in Saskatchewan. I was in the organization prior to that but they were small groups and things like this -- we were involved with the Red Power Group, the West Coast, in the struggle for Port Lawton(?) and the Sechelt peninsula. And we come back to Saskatchewan. One of my wife's uncles was beaten up pretty badly on the street by the Mounties, at which time my brother-in-law and I wrote to the Attorney General, who was then Heald, and he opened an investigation on it. And naturally Mounties investigated Mounties, and the staff sergeant investigating their lower echelons. And we took it to the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians and also, at that time, David Ahenakew had just been elected and there wasn't too much done from that end, probably because of their early stages of organization. And we went to the Metis Society and talked to Jim Sinclair and he found out that we were non-status, and he invited us to join the society, which we did. And from then on we've been working for the Metis organization off and on for the last four years. But the Mounties -- since working for the organizations, we've found out more and more that they are very biased and they are racist" (2)