You’re walking to work during rush hour through downtown Winnipeg. You come across an Indigenous woman who is clearly in distress. As you approach, you see she is bleeding and bruised. She tells you she’s been beaten and needs help to get to the hospital.

That’s the situation Vivian Ketchum came upon a few weeks ago in Winnipeg. She wrote about her experience on CNC – Plight of beaten woman ignored by general public. The response to her article was overwhelming.

When Ketchum began to reflect upon her experience, she realized how scared and vulnerable she felt when no one would stop to help her assist this woman who was in desperate need of medical attention. Even hailing a cab and using the ATM in the convenience store was fraught with difficulty.

Ketchum felt that if she and the injured woman were not Aboriginal, the response would have been different.

I recently discussed this with Vivian Ketchum in a radio interview first broadcast on the program River City 360 on CJNU 93.7 FM: