“The principal had made a phone call. I don’t know why he didn’t tell me not to go,” she said. “He should have just told me when I called the school, I wasn’t allowed at the school. I just get a call in the middle of the workshop. I answered and they said I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Bradfield was also told she would be placed on paid leave until the matter is resolved.

Shirley Henderson, Chairperson for the Prince Albert Grand Council Women’s Commission was among those in attendance at the protest Wednesday, and said she felt compelled to come from Prince Albert, after hearing a woman was “wrongfully treated for trying to speak her own language in her community where she was born and raised.”

A bus load of students from Montreal Lake Cree Nation travelled to Timber Bay Wednesday to show their support. (Submitted photo)

More recently, paNOW has been told an 11-year-old boy was disciplined at the school for saying the word “here” in Cree as he passed something to his teacher. Among the speakers at the rally on Wednesday, were elders who fought back tears as they discussed how the alleged incidents reminded them of how they were treated at residential schools and day schools. Henderson said the testimonies were very emotional to hear.

“Just down the road from where we had the protest was the Timber Bay Children’s home, and the kids there were not allowed at all to speak Cree or Dene or whatever language they were born and raised with,” she said.

Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) Chief Bobby Cameron was not in Timber Bay on Wednesday, but has been following the case closely since the allegations first surfaced last month. He told paNOW he had not wasted any time contacting the school board.

“Immediately the school board said we are investigating this, which we thought okay, they are going to do something and the principal is going to have to fix it,” he said.

Cameron said he was then alarmed to hear that the school janitor was not allowed on school property until the matter was dealt with.

“Now we expect action,” Cameron said. “We expect discipline of some sort.”

paNOW attempted on Thursday to reach out to the Northern Light School Division for comment but did not receive a reply. The school division had posted the following comment on their Facebook page Oct. 22.

A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation told paNOW they were not prepared to comment on the matter.

“Our obligation is to provide support to the member, and what that looks like varies case-by-case but certainly we are fulfilling that duty at this time.”

With files from Derek Cornet

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell