My name is Jennifer Angvariationu Toke and one source of frustration for me in this life is the fact that I get confused for a lot of things I'm not. It gets really annoying sometimes. I'm not Mexican or Middle-Eastern, not that there's anything wrong with that. I am a member of the Sioux People. That's a Native American Nation for those of you with your heads up your ignorant asses. My name literally means "Another Day" and it suits me just fine. I was born on February 7, 1987 in the City of Winnipeg, Canadian Province of Manitoba. These days, I live in the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario.
The life of a Native American chick in North America seems to be a source of fascination for a lot of people. And I personally could care less. I just live my life, man. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Criminology from the University of Winnipeg. I'm currently in Law School at the University of Toronto. I live in the suburb of Brampton with my husband Jacques Saint-Denis, a burly Haitian-American guy I met a little over a year ago. I work as a Security Manager at the local Shopping Mall to pay some bills. I make my own money and I'm self-sufficient. So much for the Canadian stereotype of the Native or Aboriginal person as dependant on Government assistance to make ends meet.
There are quite a few other Natives living in the City of Toronto. We've carved a niche for ourselves in Canada's largest City. Among the growing population of Africans, Chinese, Hispanics and Arabs. Toronto is the only place where I felt like home. I think it's the best City in all of Canada. People seem more relaxed here, and they're less full of themselves. A far cry from Winnipeg, the uptight and bigoted western Canadian town where I grew up. I got called a squaw and a "Red Woman" at school. I endured the teasing until I learned to defend myself. Being six-foot-one and quite heavyset helped. I used to play Football back in High School. I simply loved contact sports. I joined the Women's Wrestling Club at the University of Winnipeg and I quickly became its captain. Yeah, I'm a very physical gal. A lot of men found that intimidating about me. Tall and strongly built Native women are seen as intimidating by White guys in Canada. And we're supposed to be all peaceful and subservient. Like hell.
The crap I endured growing up made me a misanthrope before I reached my twenties. The Canadian government continues to screw over Native people, and that bastard Stephen Harper calls himself a progressive. Same old story, I guess. My fellow Natives piss me off most of all. It seems that every Native chick in the prairies has a White boyfriend. Yep, they're eager to date the same redneck bastards who call us "Redskin" to our faces. I don't get down like that. The Native men in the prairies didn't like me either. They found me too bold, outspoken and aggressive. I can't help it. I'm passionate about Women's rights and Native American/Aboriginal Rights issues.
I tried joining the Women's Rights Group at the University of Winnipeg but like mainstream Feminism, it's basically a group for White women. Disgusted, I kept to myself and focused on my schoolwork. After graduating from the University of Winnipeg, I moved to Metropolitan Toronto. And Toronto simply blew me away. The City really didn't feel like the rest of Canada. Toronto people are lively, cool, friendly and open-minded. The rest of Canada is uptight, narrow-minded and boring. I made more friends during my first twelve months in Toronto than I did in four years at the University of Winnipeg. One of those friends was Sarah Saint-Denis, a tall and skinny Haitian chick originally from the town of Miami, Florida.
Sarah and I had some of the same classes at the University of Toronto School of Law. As luck would have it, Sarah and I clicked right away. She was thirty years old, living with her husband Ibrahim Mustafa, a Somalian accountant, and their son Mohammed, while attending Law School. Sarah came to Toronto from her hometown of Miami a couple of years ago for school and fell in love both with the vibrant town and a certain handsome Somalian businessman. They got hitched, and the rest was history. Sarah and I became BFFs, best friends forever. She introduced me to her circle of friends, a group of lovely, educated women from places like Mexico, the Republic of Haiti and Somaliland. I felt more accepted and loved among these immigrant women than I did among my own people back in Winnipeg. Thanks to these amazing ladies, Toronto began to feel like home to me rather than a pit stop.
Trouble came into my picture-perfect world. I had it all planned out, you see. I wanted to graduate from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and become a top-notch attorney specializing in Native American/Aboriginal issues. The way I see it, Aboriginal issues are Human Rights Issues. The Canadian Government's habit of boldly going into our Reservations and taking our resources without paying us is nothing short of theft. They're really big on doing us in like that in places like Quebec and Alberta. Sarah encouraged me to pursue my dream. My feisty Haitian-American sister drew parallels between the Civil Rights Movement which Black folks started in America decades ago and the fledgling Aboriginal Rights Movement of Canada. Sometimes, I envy Black folks for their resilience. Seriously. In America, they were once slaves. Now, one of their own is the President of the United States of America. A Black man in America wields more power than any White guy on the planet. I wish I could take whatever fire drives Black folks and insert it in my fellow Aboriginals. We're complacent, content to take scraps from the Canadian Government. Black folks in North America aren't like that. I've met Black lawyers, Black journalists and Black politicians in the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario, and the town of Montreal, Province of Quebec. Black folks in North America don't play around. That's why a Black woman was once Governor-General of the Confederation of Canada, and a Black man is Mayor of Amos City in Quebec. Would a Native guy or Aboriginal woman ever become Mayor or Chief of Police in a Canadian City? I doubt it. Not if my people continue with their laziness. Yeah, I was all fired up with my intense desire to right the wrongs done to my people.