Another North Preston’s Finest group hits the news rather more often. It’s a mysterious gang of young Black men from North Preston who engage in human trafficking and who force Nova Scotia women into the sex trade.

A Black man who lives in Ontario but at one time lived in North Preston was arrested today for this abhorrent crime. Police says the man is “associated with a Halifax-area street gang known as North Preston’s Finest,” and this fact is duly reported by journalists. A CBC radio news item today also referred to the gang.

When I hear the word ‘gang’ thrown around I think Hells Angels, Maffia, Billy the Kid, that kind of thing. But according to earlier statements by police that’s not what we are talking about here.

“NPF is a term that refers to persons with ties to North Preston and surrounding areas who may or may not be involved in criminal activity,” RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Jennifer Clarke told the National Post last summer. “There is currently no evidence to support the claim … that NPF is an established group, with a defined structure, working in a coordinated fashion to carry out criminal activities, specifically human trafficking.”

No structure and no coordination to me implies there is no gang. Just a bunch of people with roots in one of Nova Scotia’s poorest communities, a community with a history of high unemployment rates mainly because of Nova Scotia’s long history of anti-Black racism.

I am not saying there are no pimps and other criminal activities by Black men who grew up in North Preston and likely know one another, and at times even cooperate. But I am saying there is nothing to suggest that a gang named North Preston’s Finest  exists.

That’s also what local residents told the same National Post reporter.

The story quotes Neville Provo, an athletic coach and staff member with Souls Strong, a community program that provides mentorship to young men deemed at risk of falling into violence or drugs, who says that if crime happens, it’s strictly “individuals doing individual things.”

If there is no gang, than all that’s left is an ugly name that unfairly paints an entire community with the same brush. A community that can point to wonderful residents, a proud history, but that ends up fighting stigma seemingly any time a Black man from Nova Scotia gets arrested for the crime of human trafficking.

Police and media should be a little less quick to throw that ugly name around.

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By and large that was the consensus that emerged during a well-attended panel discussion at the University of King’s College last Friday.

Poet and writer El Jones, Mi’kmaw lawyer and professor Naiomi Metallic and Nabiha Atallah, who works for the Immigrant Services of Nova Scotia (ISANS) all offered their views.

A lot of ground was covered, and there is no way a brief report can even begin to reflect all that was said. The panel discussion was recorded, and will be posted online. Get curious and check it out, probably on this website. Or maybe here.

Not all immigrant success stories are economic success stories

Allow immigrants tell their own story, said Atallah, who on the whole was pleased with the way the arrival of Syrian refugees last year was covered in the media.

That said, there was also the infamous story published in the scab Chronicle Herald, full of stereotypes and unsubstantiated allegations.   

“We’re often asked for success stories at ISANS, and we are happy to share, but when people talk about success they often mean economic success. That’s not the only measure of success and we would like to see a broader perspective,” said Atallah.

Not all immigrants are from Syria, and some segments of the immigrant community are consistently ignored by the media.

“Immigrants with disabilities are absent in the entire narrative about immigration. But they are there, and they are amazing people with a lot of resilience,” Natillah observed.

It’s about the problem of Black people living and breathing

EL Jones looked at the recent reporting on carding, that disproportionately affects African Nova Scotians. There is something much bigger going on, Jones suggested.

“We are not considered to be equally human in any way,” said Jones.

“When we look at the criminalization of black people it is in the context of a long and deliberate history of dehumanizing Black people and their lives. This is not solely about policing, in fact it is not primarily about policing, it’s about the problem of Black people living and breathing and being on the street.”

As well, media are too quick to assume that the story as told by authorities and police is the only true version.

The fact is that journalists often rely on  police accounts that are fundamentally flawed,” said Jones. “An example is the myth of North Preston’s Finest, a myth that has persisted for 30 years.”

“It doesn’t matter how much the people of North Preston say that of course there are these problems in the community, but a Canada-wide super organized gang constantly trafficking people, that’s just false to us. But that doesn’t seem to matter because the police insists on it.”

“The media significantly shapes public opinion about indigenous people”

Naiomi Metallic tackled a variety of pervasive myths about indigenous communities.

Incompetent chiefs and band councils wasting taxpayers’ money, entitled indigenous communities living the good life because of all the government handouts, we’ve all heard it before.  

All these narratives are clearly wrong and easily disproved.

“Then there is what I call the narrative of despair,” said Metallic. “Talking about the poverty, but never talking about the historic and contemporary sources of underfunding. Never talking about solutions. Solutions don’t seem to get the same air time.”

“The media has not been neutral in how it deals with indigenous people through history. The  media has perpetuated colonial constructs about native inferiority. And that also contributes to the marginalization of indigenous peoples,” Metallic said.

All this really matters, said Metallic, “because the media significantly shapes public opinion about indigenous people, especially when other sources such as the public education system are lacking. The media has a huge impact on public opinion.”

Metallic also talked about the way Nova Scotia media covered the Cape Breton moose hunt this fall. That hunt in Cape Breton Highlands National Park  was steeped in controversy.

There were confrontations between Mi’kmaw hunters and protesters, who claimed that the hunt constituted a threat to the moose population, contrary to what the Park’s ecologists had determined.

“The media focused on the voices of the non-aboriginal protesters, and if was only the APTN  journalist (Trina Roache) talking to indigenous people and talking about treaty rights. Even when a Parks Canada person pointed them to a Mi’kmaq who had been very involved in the planning of the hunt they just walked away from that, they didn’t even bother to talk to him.”  

At the time I was sufficiently pissed off to write my own op-ed about that controversy.  

See also:

Weekend video: our rightful place (the Mi’kmaw perspective on the moose hunt)

It’s called carding, and it should stop entirely 

Please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. 

The post Panel tackles media bias in reports on immigrant, African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Then along comes the CBC and publishes a story that ignores all these efforts and pulls out every anti-black stereotype you can imagine.

Just the other day our free daily, Halifax Metro, ran an excellent story on the great work Miranda Cain is doing in her community.

All on her own this young woman managed to raise money for 12 summer positions. Her group helps seniors cutting grass, and performs other ‘random acts of kindness.”

She named her group North Preston’s Future, or NPF. That’s also the acronym for North Preston’s Finest, the gang that at one time originated in the community.

That’s on purpose, Cain told Metro.

“We are a part of Canada’s history as the largest black community, we should be recognized as such – not as being North Preston’s Finest where the little 2 or 5 per cent is doing whatever,” Cain told Metro.

“You come here and our community welcomes you with open arms. People are not afraid to come here, so why are you portraying that in the media?” Cain said.

That’s a question our national broadcaster should ponder.

CBC’s recent story, Understanding the North Preston’s Finest Gang, pulls out all the stops. Really, there’s not a racist stereotype about Black crime that’s not mentioned somehow. Black men with $100,000 gold chains and cadillacs luring white women into prostitution, you get the idea.

“There are no businesses there, which really means no opportunities. What ends up happening is many people in the community, sadly, end up getting involved in gangs,” journalist Angela MacIvor explains.

“Many.” What does that even mean? It strikes me that Cain with her” 2 or 5 percent” is closer to the mark.

Also absent is any effort to provide context. No mention of the high unemployment the community faces. No mention of the shameful racism in Nova Scotia that’s one of the main reasons for that high unemployment.

No mention of the recent defunding of the Watershed Association Development Services (W.A.D.E.), a community organization that offered employment services to Black residents of East and North Preston, Cherry Brook, Lake Loon and Dartmouth for many decades.

Most importantly, no awareness of the real hurt that a story like this is likely to cause to the many law abiding residents of North Preston.  

And when I say many, I mean 95 to 98 percent.

With thanks to El Jones, whose post on Facebook alerted me to the CBC coverage. She asks that people contact the CBC to let them know their article is unacceptable and racist.

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