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The StarPhoenix: Student Erica Lee at the centre of Idle No More

The following article about Erica Lee, a Political Studies and Philosophy student at the centre of the Idle No More movement, appeared in The StarPhoenix on Jan. 16, 2013.

Read The StarPhoenix article.

Photo by Richard Marjan, The StarPhoenix

At social media command centre, U of S student in eye of storm

By Jeremy Warren, The StarPhoenix, January 16, 2013

Erica Lee is at the centre of Idle No More and has witnessed the best and worst of the made-in-Saskatchewan national movement.

Lee, a 22-year-old University of Saskatchewan student, manages the movement's main Facebook page, which serves as Idle No More's unofficial head-quarters.

It's the hub where people from around the world go to find help organizing rallies, share stories and support the cause.

The Idle No More page is also where people go to vent and berate. Lee spends much of her day checking it to remove racist and violent comments.

"A teenage boy sent me a message calling me a 'squaw,' " Lee said while scrolling through comments at a computer in the U of S Aboriginal Students' Centre this week. "I've deleted messages that say, 'Quit drinking Lysol.' That's a really common one."

Lee, who also sits on the Indigenous Students' Council, is never without a cell-phone and she regularly checks it between classes.

The page reached 1.5 million people in the week leading up to Friday's meeting between First Nations leaders and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, according to Face-book measurements that account for views, "likes" and "shares."

There are also posts that inspire, Lee says. She is particularly fond of a picture someone posted of a lone person standing on a building in Palestine holding an Idle No More poster.

Lee deletes much of the racist comments, but she doesn't shy away from criticism. Many people have questions about the goals and activities of Idle No More and honest dialogue might lead to some good, Lee says.

"We don't want to remove dissenting comments because we want a good discussion," she said.

"If you delete a question, people will never learn. There's still so much misunderstanding about First Nations in Canada."

As news coverage of Idle No More increased in recent weeks, so did the amount of online discussion about the movement. But the talk is far from completely respectful. Journalists and columnists are called out for being "soft" on First Nations or are labelled bigots or racists - over the same articles. Everyone has an opinion and the Internet enables it to be widely distributed.

"I'm not shocked anymore even though you never really get used to it," Lee said. "But when (the negative comments) are surrounded by a lot of positivity, I think that's part of gaining knowledge."

It's also likely that Idle No More would not be the movement it is without social media. It started with four women in Saskatoon exchanging emails and creating a working group page on Facebook. Now social media fuels the spread of Idle No More across the country.

At rallies, such as the several held in Saskatoon malls, people hold up cellphones, cameras and tablets to record speeches and round dances. It's political protest in real time with updates sent from the rallies. Supporters don't have to wait to respond to regular mainstream coverage, Lee says.

"It's great for First Nations because we're so dispersed and it gives us a chance to connect and see things we might not get in the mainstream media," she said.

Lee was at the first Idle No More event before it was "Idle No More." She spoke at a small event at Station 20 West in November. She got involved through her former teacher and now friend Sheelah McLean, one of the co-founders of the movement.

As a political studies and philosophy major at the U of S, Lee is living what she studies. She says her school work hasn't suffered despite immersing herself at the very root of this national grassroots movement. Lee, who is the first person in her family to finish high school, refuses to let her grades slip.

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