Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs withdraws business from Winnipeg hotel after video of restrained woman

The head of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says the organization has cut business ties with Winnipeg's Marlborough Hotel, after a video shared widely on social media showed a young First Nations woman in the lobby who appeared to have her hands restrained behind her back.

Cathy Merrick, grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, says her organization moved most of the people who'd been staying there under Jordan's Principle — a federal policy which ensures First Nations kids can swiftly access essential products and services — to other hotels.

"That's something that we're recommending to leadership, [to] withdraw their services from the Marlborough at this point in time," she told CBC News on Monday.

Merrick says the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs wrote a letter to management of the Marlborough Hotel after a video of a woman who appeared to be restrained in the hotel's lobby was widely circulated on social media.

The video, filmed on Dec. 25, shows a woman with her hands bound behind her back repeatedly trying to leave the hotel while several men prevented her from doing so.

The woman, who is seen crying with her hands restrained behind her back, then walks toward the front door as one of the men tries to direct her away from it. She can be heard calling him a "pervert," saying she was punched in the face and touched in her "private spot."

The woman in the video had allegedly held a knife and attempted to stab a hotel staff member, before another employee put zip ties on her until police arrived, according to Const. Claude Chancy of the Winnipeg Police Service.

She was later arrested and charged with assault with a weapon, police said. An investigation into the woman's allegations of abuse by hotel staff in the video is also underway.

Wrist ties are "not preferred but acceptable" when used to restrain and prevent people from harming themselves or others during citizen's arrests, Chancy said Sunday, noting he was speaking in general terms about those kinds of arrests and not in connection with the video.

Merrick would not comment on the video itself since the incident is under police investigation, but said it shows "an abuse of power" by hotel management and its employees.

"If she's been treated like that, are they treating our other people like that?"

The woman in the video was staying at the hotel for a medical appointment and has since returned to her home community, which is a First Nation in northern Manitoba, Merrick said.

CBC News asked Indigenous Services Canada on Monday for more information about how it selects and oversees hotels for First Nations individuals making medical appointments, but was told ISC could not provide that information before publication.

On Monday evening, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak — which represents dozens of First Nations in northern Manitoba — wrote on social media that any of its members currently staying at the Marlborough Hotel while they seek medical treatment have the right to move.