Kim Brertton rushes home for lunch from her job on the Saddle Lake Cree Nation to check on her three kids. They’re halfway into their second day of staying home from school and are starting to get bored. With winter setting in, playing outside isn’t too appealing. They’ve watched their favourite movies, eaten most of the snacks and leftover Halloween candy. But Brertton refuses to let her daughter Leneya, 17, and twins Mikail and Miley, 10, go back until she’s sure it’s safe.

Most mornings, Leneya drives her siblings the 20 minutes north from their home in St. Paul, a tight-knit farming community in eastern Alberta, to school in the nearby hamlet of Ashmont.

But the family’s world got a little smaller this week, when a man allegedly threatened to shoot up their school.

Band and school officials say a man was overheard making the threats at a restaurant. The threats were repeated by others on social media, then removed. But screen shots were taken and forwarded to school officials, who contacted RCMP.

On Sunday afternoon, RCMP arrested Andrew Sydora, 70, and charged him with three counts of uttering threats. He is set to appear in St. Paul Provincial Court on Thursday. In a press release, RCMP said they responded to complaints that a man had threatened to “shoot up” Ashmont school, as well as the nearby Saddle Lake Cree Nation and White Fish Lake First Nation. RCMP aren’t releasing further details about the incident except to say that the threats were taken seriously.

According to RCMP Cpl. Ronald Bumbry, Sydora was released after RCMP considered his low flight risk, the probability of him committing the offence and his past history and criminal record. However, Bumbry said police seized a fire arm from Sydora and attached conditions to his release, including that he is forbidden from travelling to Saddle Lake, Whitefish Lake and Ashmont school. He’s also been ordered to abstain from possessing a firearm or weapon, and to abstain from alcohol or any intoxicating substances.

Parents and community leaders in Saddle Lake are outraged and afraid, as they grapple with how to keep their children safe. Both the elementary and high school on the Saddle Lake reserve have been on lockdown all week, with RCMP securing both locations. Buses transporting children to the Ashmont school from the reserve and to schools on-reserve have also been shut down until further notice.

Saddle Lake Cree Nation member Augustine Cardinal said he was ready to miss work and stand guard at Ashmont school this week.

“I was raised to be a protector,” said Cardinal. “And this is for protecting white kids, black kids, red kids — all kids.”

Some parents, like Brertton, are simply keeping their children at home. “These are my babies,” she said. “I never want them to be in danger.”

Saddle Lake Band Councillor Jason Whiskeyjack said nation members are angry and want to take matters into their own hands. “Some band members are armed and ready to protect.”

The incident has also inflamed already fraught racial tensions in the area.

The memory of the shooting and killing of Red Pheasant First Nation man Colten Boushie by white farmer Gerald Stanley in August 2016 weighs heavily on Whiskeyjack’s mind. Boushie was shot after Stanley suspected him of attempting to steal from his rural Saskatchewan yard. After a highly publicized trial highlighted racial divides in the province, Stanley was found not guilty.

“There’s always that fear, it could happen. … this guy (Sydora) gets arrested and let out the same day? The justice system isn’t working and they (non-Indigenous) figure it’s a free for all against Indigenous Peoples,” said Whiskeyjack.

Many parents from the nearby reserves send their kids to Ashmont for better programming than is available at on-reserve schools and 95 per cent of kids at the newly built Ashmont school are Indigenous.

Sydora lives less than two blocks from Ashmont school, according to the district superintendent and locals who know him.

St. Paul Education Regional Division Superintendent Glen Brodziak saw the threats on Sunday via social media. He confirmed that the threats he saw were racially motivated. He immediately directed Ashmont’s principal to report it to the police.

“The words and language it contained was very upsetting … very troubling,” said Brodziak. “We (as a community) are very disturbed by the comments and we’re afraid.” Normally, 575 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 attend the school, but this week only about 25 kids showed up, he said.

Ashmont school opened Monday under a “hold and secure,” meaning all the doors were locked and manned by staff. An RCMP officer roamed the halls keeping an eye out for suspicious activity. These measures will stay in place until Sydora’s court date on Thursday morning in St. Paul. Any decisions on future school operations are contingent on the outcome of that court date, Brodziak said.

Meanwhile, the division has consulted with a private security company to hire guards long-term at Ashmont school. School officials believe it’s necessary, “Given the seriousness and how our parents are feeling. We know budgets are tight, but you can’t put a price on safety,” Brodziak said.

Vera Cardinal, principal of Onchaminahos school, the elementary school in Saddle Lake, said Monday was intense and emotional for staff. She said the constable on-site, who spent part of the day playing floor hockey with students and handing out stickers to younger kids, helped provide a sense of security.

“We are all looking out for each other, providing support to the students,” she said. “We have caring teachers, a therapist on-site and we use grounding techniques like smudging and prayers, so they have that sense of security.”

Normally 240 students attend Onchaminahos, but only about 50 have been there this week. Cardinal said most of her students are too young to be aware of what was going on.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

But Georgette Dion, who lives in Whitefish Lake, has seven children in Grades 2 to 12 who attend Ashmont. While she went to work, they stayed home.

“The kids know we have to survive out there. We need to do something. Now. We have to take this seriously.”

The racial tensions in the area are deep-rooted, according to Saddle Lake band councillor Pamela Quinn, going back to first contact when settlers arrived. Land was stolen, First Nations were herded onto reserves and segregated from mainstream society and children were stolen from their families and sent to residential schools. All of this happened on top of fallout caused by the Indian Act, as Indigenous people faced colonization and cultural genocide.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Quinn said.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the surrounding area mostly stay away from each other, she said, adding that everyone shops in St. Paul, the nearest town, and even sit and eat at their favourite Chinese restaurant, the Silver Star, but people keep their distance.

Quinn said there are always muttered derogatory and discriminatory comments about the “Indians” that have become normalized. She thinks it’s just a matter of time before the pot boils over.

“This is normal. But it’s time we stand up — not just against racism or marginalization, we need to stand up politically and use our voice. We can’t sit back and watch, listen anymore.”

Quinn was a teacher before she decided to run for band council in June because she wanted to do something about the injustices faced by her nation.

The Saddle Lake Cree are relatives of the nearby Whitefish First Nation, and the school there is also operating under a “hold and secure.” Approximately 12,000 people make up the band list, with 6,000 living on-reserve. Both bands are struggling to combat poverty, violence and other adversities that plague many First Nations.

“We already live in a war-zone, we don’t need this,” said Quinn. “We have a battlefield here and a battlefield out there.”

Brodziak, born and raised in the area, is also frustrated with ongoing tensions between the communities. “This hurts. I take it personally. The tension, racism — I’m not naïve to see that, I know it’s true.”

The school board met with Saddle Lake and Whitefish Lake leadership earlier this week and held a parent meeting Monday evening, where parents expressed frustration at what they felt were barriers in communication with officials and law enforcement.

The Saddle Lake Cree Nation and Whitefish Lake First Nation said in a press release Monday that they view the threat to the First Nations and their children who attend the school as “an act of terrorism.”

Brodziak hopes things will get better. He’s proud of the mandatory Kairo’s Blanket Exercise that is used as a teaching tool in reconciliation efforts by many organizations in Canada, and which all Grade 7 students in the division are required to take and the Grade 10 tour of the former residential school that now houses Blue Quills University. But he acknowledges that more reconciliation is needed.

“Sometimes, us older people, maybe we’re still not getting it and getting stuck. I have faith, hope in our younger people. They’re saying this is wrong. I’m hoping we can learn and that a little bit of good comes out of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brertton is left to have some tough conversations with her kids — and they have a lot of questions. Miley, 10, is missing her friends at school, but she wants to know where the man accused of making the threat is.

“Is he in jail? What if we go there (to school) and he’s there?” she asks, her dark brown eyes widening. Brertton says her kids have seen news coverage of mass shootings in the U.S. but it’s hard to comprehend that something like that could happen to them.

She does her best to explain the stark reality of the situation, but struggles with how to explain her suspicion that the colour of their skin has played a role.

Brertton is upset that Sydora was released while others are living in fear.

“Him being released, what’s that telling me as a parent?” she asked. “But we will pray for him.”

A rally organized by local First Nations will be held Thursday outside the St. Paul courthouse has been planned to protest the threats. Some people are travelling from as far away as Calgary and Fort McMurray to show their support.

Correction - Nov. 7, 2019: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly referred to Blue Quills as a college. As well, the previous version mistakenly referred to Cpl. Ronald Bumbry as a constable.

Read more about: