The Politics of Redress and Racial Gendered Violence: The Case of Val-d’or

In 2015, Indigenous women in Val-d’Or came forward through Radio-Canada’s investigative program Enquête with experiences of physical and sexual abuse and other forms of racial violence at the hands of police officers from Sûreté du Québec. Indigenous community members, advocates and some government officials responded with demands for an inquiry and commission to redress relations between Indigenous people and the police in Quebec. Although a number of officers were placed under investigation, none of the 37 complaints turned over to the police resulted in charges against police officers. This paper will explore the representational conditions of racialized, gendered violence that gives rise to a politics of redress. I will address the following question: How do representations of racial and gendered violence provide content to political calls for redress? I am especially interested in how specific legal and ethical obligations are articulated in the presence of ongoing racialized and gendered violence.