'They hunt us': Cree trans woman says Edmonton is unsafe

When Edmonton city council adopted an action plan to improve safety and well-being for Indigenous people at a meeting on April 6, advocate Chevi Rabbit said she was disappointed by the lack of attention to 2SLGBT people and the specific ways they are vulnerable. 

Rabbit, who describes herself as biracial and Cree, says she came to the city hoping to end the intergenerational trauma that has haunted her family, but instead she ended up the victim of a hate crime. 

Now Rabbit, from Montana First Nation, wants the city to do more to protect other 2SLGBT people from similar violence. 

"It was very glossy and self-congratulating," Rabbit said of council's approval of a plan put forward by Councillor Aaron Paquette. "I felt like [2SLGBT people] were pushed out in this reconciliation effort." 

Rabbit grew up with her mother and stepfather in Ponoka, Alta. about 100 km south of Edmonton.

Her father was murdered when she was just a baby, and Rabbit says her aunt and uncle were both part of the 60's Scoop. 

"My mom did a really good job sheltering me in a bubble," Rabbit said, noting that she was surrounded by love and support throughout her youth. 

As a young adult, Rabbit decided to attend the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She was excited to be the first person in her family to receive a degree.

It's a decision she now regrets. 

"I wish I never came to Edmonton," Rabbit said. "I'm trying to find the good in this."

Rabbit's mixed feelings about the city stem from an incident in 2012. When she was still a student at the University of Alberta, a group of men attacked Rabbit in a Safeway parking lot.

She says that experience led her to become an advocate for others. Rabbit says her assault led her to discourage other Indigenous people, including her niece, from moving to Edmonton. 

Edmonton and its surrounding area have the second largest urban Indigenous population in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. 

Rabbit says many of those people arrive alone and vulnerable. Once they've been victimized, it's easy for them to fall prey again.