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“Last week, a jury of nine men and two women in Edmonton found Bradley Barton not guilty of Cindy Gladue’s murder, despite evidence that he had caused the wound that led to her death. The details of the case are too traumatizing to recount in full, but you have to question what is considered justice if an 11 cm wound inside a woman’s vagina that results in her bleeding to death is not evidence enough that a crime was committed.
The details of the trial indicate how mechanisms within the justice system can be used to normalize violence against indigenous women. The violence they experience often seems to lie beyond the arms of the law: Violence with impunity; murder without fault. The illogics run deep, yet to indigenous women, they sound all too familiar.
The courtroom treatment of Cindy’s body is just one efficacious expression of the dehumanization of indigenous people – especially indigenous women – by processes of Canadian law.
Her preserved pelvis was brought into court. On a screen, the wound to her vagina was displayed as proof of her dehumanized status. Is there any reason the jury needed anything more than hard copy photos of the wound? Indigenous peoples bodies have been treated as specimens for centuries, though usually not in murder trials these days.
This treatment of Ms. Gladue demonstrates just how a 36-year old mother can be imagined as different from the jurors’ own mothers, and how the stigma of her work in the sex trade, her indigeneity and her womanhood all combined to naturalize her death as routine by jury. It was well established that Ms. Gladue met Mr. Barton in the context of her work in the sex trade. She met with him twice and camera evidence was presented showing the two of them entering the hotel room where she later died.”
– The Globe and Mail, Cindy Gladue case sends a chilling message to indigenous women.
“Last week, Barton, who was charged with first-degree murder, walked away a free man after a jury found him not guilty. The defence argued the fatal 11-centimetre wound in Gladue’s vagina was the accidental result of “rough sex” and not, as the Crown prosector argued, the result of an intentional stabbing. Gladue’s blood-alcohol limit was four times the legal limit, which means she couldn’t legally consent to sex — rough or otherwise. Medical experts were divided on whether the wound could have been caused by a sharp object or tearing from sex.”
– Winnipeg Free Press, Verdict after Gladue’s death sends painful message about whose lives are valued.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #12 – Dehumanization (Indigenous Women).
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
