THE PAS, MAN, HOBBEMA, ALTA. — Sitting outside her home in the blue light of dusk, Christie Jebb lights a cigarette with shaking hands. She can't afford to sleep at night any more, she says. She's afraid the gang that has been terrorizing her here on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation reserve will return to finish the job.
In the past three years she has been beaten twice, offered bribes not to testify in court, labelled a rat by members of her community, had all her windows smashed while she slept and seen a neighbour's house burned to the ground. Last week, she was hit with a shotgun blast while standing on her front step.
Ms. Jebb is a target because she dared to stand up to the Indian Posse, one of Canada's largest gangs. In the past five years, aboriginal gangs, as they are classified by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, have surpassed outlaw motorcycle gangs and Italian organized crime syndicates as the largest single group held in federal prisons, with 536 members serving federal sentences. Ninety per cent of them are doing time on the Prairies, dominated by three established gangs: the Indian Posse, the Native Syndicate and the Warriors.
Ms. Jebb's ordeal began three years ago when she was brutally beaten by a member of the Indian Posse for refusing to allow him to enter a party. The gang tried to bribe her not to testify, but she refused to bend and her assailant was convicted.
Christie Jebb stands last month in front of her neighbour’s house on the Opaskwayak Cree Nation reserve in Manitoba. The house has been fire bombed by local gang members. (Dustin Leader for The Globe and Mail)
A year ago, another member of the Indian Posse barged into her home, punched her and knocked her unconscious. Once more she went to the police; that case is still awaiting trial. Whenever she went out in her community, she would hear the taunts of "rat" from the gang's legion of members and associates. And one night in January, a group of thugs wearing red masks smashed every window in her house as she lay in bed, terrified.
Two weeks ago, the violence escalated. As she tells the story, she points a finger a few metres down the dirt road that runs between her modest home and the bush, saying that's where the gangsters stood when they opened fire. A group of eight or more, their faces covered by red bandanas, were shouting "Indian Posse" as they approached.
"It was 8:45 p.m., we were sitting outside here, smoking. I saw them coming and told my neighbour to phone the cops. We just stood here. They stopped and they were yelling, 'Indian Posse, let's get her,' " she said. "I saw the gun in the air and then he pulled it down and boom, boom, we felt the pellets hit us. I was too shocked to hit the ground or anything."
Ms. Jebb, 29, was fortunate not to be hurt. The shotgun barrel was sawed off, and fired from far enough away that the pellets stung but didn't break the skin. Her worst fear is that her home will be torched while she sleeps, as happened to a neighbour a year ago.
"The intimidation is really bad," she said.
Spreading westward
The recent history of aboriginal gangs began when the Indian Posse was formed on the streets of Winnipeg in 1988, followed in 1991 by the Manitoba Warriors. The rival groups clashed in prison, and the necessity of having some gang protection led unaffiliated inmates to found the Native Syndicate in 1994.
All three gangs spread westward from Manitoba as a result of the federal parole system, according to Detective Grant Goulet of the Winnipeg police organized crime unit. Because of their violent behaviour, many of the offenders ended up in Edmonton's maximum-security prison and were released there on parole. A group of notorious Indian Posse armed robbers adopted Edmonton as their new home, and began setting up chapters nearby.
One community, Hobbema, has become the poster reserve for a growing gang problem in recent years. The 12,000-member community, which is home to four Cree reserves, has been racked with gang-related violence and crime, including the disturbing drive-by shooting last month of a 23-month-old girl.
Asia Saddleback was in her home on the Samson Cree reserve, 80 kilometres south of Edmonton, eating dinner when a stray bullet hit the toddler just below the abdomen.
Police suspect the shooting, which was the reserve's 12th gun crime since March, was gang related. An 18-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy were charged in connection with the crime.
The little girl has since been released from hospital, but doctors couldn't remove the bullet for fear of causing damage to her spine. Candace Saddleback, the girl's 25-year-old mother, has told reporters she's too scared to return to her reserve. "I've been living there all my life and I'm sorry it took [the shooting of] my daughter ... for people to understand that it's a bad crisis in Hobbema," she said.
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