14 Sechelt Natives Pepper-Sprayed by Cops

Fourteen people, six of them children, one of them a baby, from the Sechelt Nation on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast were pepper-sprayed and sent to hospital on Monday, after a procession of 20 vehicles celebrating the victory of two teams in a youth soccer tournament was stopped by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers for “unsafe driving” on the edge of the reserve.

“…Chief Stan Dixon called for reconciliation at the band’s meeting Tuesday morning, but said he was booed by band members who were there.”
– Vancouver Sun

“On Tuesday, with tensions running high, SIB members packed into the Sechelt provincial courthouse to lend their support to 42-year-old Troy Mayers, the soccer coach who was arrested Monday night and charged with obstructing a police officer and a motor vehicle offence (failing to stop for a police signal under section 73 of the motor vehicle act). Mayers did not appear in court as Crown Counsel consented to his release with no conditions other than to appear in court again on July 11…

“…’I didn’t resist anything,’ Mayers said outside the hall during a media scrum. ‘This goes on all the time around here. The police can do whatever they want with us — we have no rights.’ ”
– Coast Reporter

“Native leaders demand public apology”, Coast Reporter (July 6-12, 2007)

“Sechelt band wants answers after RCMP uses pepper spray”,
Vancouver Sun (July 04, 2007)