Community Shaken by Alleged Sexual Assaults
Written by Paul Graif on 30 July 2020
A recent Twitter page was taken down after potentially libelous postings about alleged assaults and sexual assaults in Kahnawake. 70 anonymous statements were made in less than 48 hours and often detailed alleged attacks experienced by the poster or those that allegedly happened to friends and family members. The Twitter page went by the title Ktown’s Finest. Many names and accusations were revealed in those allegations. The Kahnawake Peacekeepers say they received 13 official complaints about it. While the page no longer exists, it is serving to reopen the conversation about sexual assault in the community.
Tina McComber decided to speak publicly about her experience. McComber said “It’s taken me a long time to be open, to be able to talk about it.” McComber said she was repeatedly assaulted by several people when she was just a child beginning at the age of five. “In reading those posts, it made me sick to my stomach…just bringing back the old memories I kind of tried to push away. Because they come to my thoughts at just random, and it’s terrible”, she said.
McComber is a mother of four now, who has done everything in her power to protect her children. She said “Especially my youngest daughter I’m always like ‘No why do you want to sleep out?’ I mean I let her because she doesn’t understand…finally as she’s getting older I’m able to talk to her about it, and I tell her this is what happened and this is what can happen.” McComber says that by coming forward she hopes it will help, even if it’s just one person.
Kiona Deer is part of a group of women who are trying to plan a solidarity march for abuse survivors this weekend in Kahnawake. Deer said “A lot of times this gets pushed under the rug, it’ll go around for a couple of days and then it’s not talked about again afterwards and then the cycle continues. There’s only so much you can do in terms of support groups. But when things come to a head, people tend to pay more attention when it’s directly out there like that.
