This article examines the discourse surrounding issues affecting Indigenous peoples within the Canadian mainstream media. We compare the coverage of two cases of water poisonings—one in a primarily-white town and the other in an Indigenous community—in 282 newspaper articles from the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Windspeaker. We show that the dominant coverage of these two very similar cases diverged significantly. The Indigenous workers in charge of the water supply were regarded as incompetent and incapable to fill their position while the entire community was described as drunk, lazy, helpless, and perpetually dependent on government aide. By contrast, white workers were seen as relatable and in command of their erroneous actions, while the residents of the town were described simply as the victims of an unfortunate tragedy. Such reporting fails to contextualize the events or point out the injustices of Canadian colonialism, thus contributing to the perpetuation of these injustices.

中文翻译：

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加拿大媒体对土著人的种族定型观念：两次水污染事件的比较分析

本文考察了有关加拿大主流媒体中影响土著人民的问题的论述。我们在《多伦多星报》，《环球邮报》，《国家邮报》和《风语》的282篇报纸文章中，比较了两起水中毒案件的报道范围，一起是在白人居多的城镇，另一起是在土著社区。。我们表明，这两个非常相似的案例的主要覆盖范围显着不同。负责供水的原住民工人被认为无能，也无力填补自己的职位，而整个社区被描述为醉酒，懒惰，无助且永久依赖政府助手。相比之下，白人工人被认为是与他们相关的，并指挥着他们的错误行为，而该镇的居民被简单地描述为不幸悲剧的受害者。此类报道未能根据事件背景或指出加拿大殖民主义的不公正之处，从而助长了这些不公正现象的长期存在。