By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau
Sun. Jun
MILLBROOK — Patricia Stevens has been evicted not just from her home but, effectively, from her First Nations community.
"When you lose your home in a First Nations community, you have to go live in the non-native community because there is no other place for you on the reserve," Ms. Stevens said during a recent interview outside her home on
Eviction from a band-owned house means the 52-year-old woman is left with few options.
"If I go outside Millbrook I can’t get any support from the band and I have to leave my community," said Ms. Stevens.
The home from which Ms. Stevens was evicted after 13 months is in one of Millbrook’s new subdivisions. The eviction took effect last week.
Standing outside the house she shared with her two sons, she sighed deeply.
"There’s a Dumpster there parked in the driveway and I don’t know what they’re going to do with that," she said, pointing toward a metal trash bin and a nearby notice of eviction posted on the door of the home.
Ms. Stevens is temporarily living with family on the reserve, and her sons are staying with relatives in Eskasoni.
In a native community, where everything from getting a home, university funding and a job may depend on the goodwill of chief and band council, Ms. Stevens has tried to have the eviction reversed. She even asked the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to rule on the legality of the action.
"I went to Supreme Court, and (Justice Ted Scanlan) upheld the order (to evict) but recommended the chief and council overturn their decision and let me stay," she said.
Chief Lawrence Paul said the judge merely commented and did not make a recommendation.
"He upheld the legal right of council to evict, and the council is within their rights to evict," Mr. Paul said.
Mr. Paul said that as recently as last Tuesday night, he polled individual members of council, and not one was in favour of reversing the order.
"We offered to pay for her damage deposit, rent and utilities for six months for an apartment in
"That’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned. . . . I have compassion for her, but she must know we have bylaws here and they have to be enforced. There was a long list of complaints about that residence, and we gave her warnings."
The chief said there had been numerous complaints about late-night noise at the home and no action was taken.
Ms. Stevens said she received no warnings.
"I’m not saying my kids (aged 16 and 20) are perfect, but there are houses in this community where they’re selling crack and having all-night parties and they don’t get evicted," she said.
As for the council’s promise of six months of assistance, Ms. Stevens said she worries about what will happen after that.
Mr. Paul said Ms. Stevens is within her right to apply for another home in the community.
A support worker with the Millbrook Healing Centre, Ms. Stevens works with battered women and is a residential school survivor.
"Where am I going to get an apartment outside of Millbrook? I’m a native woman who was evicted by her own band," she said sadly.
"I’m a single mother trying to make my way, and this is what my own people do. . . . What they’re doing is not the Indian way and they’ve got to know that."
Ms. Stevens said she intends to pitch a tent somewhere in the community to make her point.
"I’ll put my tent up and I’ll make some signs. . . . There is a way through this somehow."