Halifax Witch Says She's Not Safe Anymore
Sunday September 9, 2007
In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Shauna Cook says she and her friends are being physically attacked for their religious beliefs. Cook is a hedgewitch, and makes no secret of it. On September 1st, a pair of teenagers leaving Cook's house were attacked by a group of attackers. One of the victims, an 18-year-old woman, ran back to Cook's house to call for help, and was struck in the head with a rock. The 17-year-old boy who was with her was even less fortunate, and was beaten and stabbed in the back, before he finally escaped back to the house.
This comes on the heels of an August attack on Cook herself and her family, in which she and her children were surrounded by assailants with bats. Cook says her neighbors don't understand her religion, and call her a "white supremacist," which she firmly denies. The alleged attackers are all black.
Cook told a reporter, "I stand out like a sore thumb." She added that her black clothing and her grammatically correct English make her different from her neighbors. Cook and her children have packed up to live with her mother in another town, hoping they'll be safer there.
Unfortunately, none of the news articles I've read on this case have really gone into any detail as to whether or not this case was indeed religiously motivated, so until police release more information we'll have to wonder how witch-friendly Halifax is. There don't appear to be any interviews with neighbors or co-workers, nor is there any comment from the two victims of the Sept. 1 attack. Regardless of what the motivation was in this, no family should have to live in fear of their own neighbors. I hope Ms. Cook and her children are able to find the safe haven they deserve.
This comes on the heels of an August attack on Cook herself and her family, in which she and her children were surrounded by assailants with bats. Cook says her neighbors don't understand her religion, and call her a "white supremacist," which she firmly denies. The alleged attackers are all black.
Cook told a reporter, "I stand out like a sore thumb." She added that her black clothing and her grammatically correct English make her different from her neighbors. Cook and her children have packed up to live with her mother in another town, hoping they'll be safer there.
Unfortunately, none of the news articles I've read on this case have really gone into any detail as to whether or not this case was indeed religiously motivated, so until police release more information we'll have to wonder how witch-friendly Halifax is. There don't appear to be any interviews with neighbors or co-workers, nor is there any comment from the two victims of the Sept. 1 attack. Regardless of what the motivation was in this, no family should have to live in fear of their own neighbors. I hope Ms. Cook and her children are able to find the safe haven they deserve.
Her creack about “grammatically correct english” makes me wonder if she’s really telling the whole story.
You would think after a few hundred years people would find something remotely constructive to do.
I think I have to agree with Jennifer. Was it really necessary to make a point of her “grammatically correct English” to show how much she stands out?
Attacking because of religious beliefs? The Christians have been doing that for 2 millenia now. Why would they stop because there were children involved? Beat the parents, rape the kiddes, Thats about as Jesus Freak as one can get.
I dislike physical and verbal attacks against anyone of different race, ethnic group, or religion as much as anyone else here especially when there are children involved. I have to agree with a few of you though it seems like we are only getting one side of the story and possibly not the whole story as well, because when she stated about the “grammatically correct English”, it got me wondering.
I’m a little disappointed that none of the local papers have delved into this more deeply. It sounds as though there may be not only religious differences at play here, but cultural ones as well.
patti
The woman’s commentary regarding the difference between her grammatically correct English with that of her negro? neighbors I believe eludes to their usage of inner city slang and Ebonics style English vocabulary.
Am I racial stereotyping? Not at all as my commentary only reflects upon the standardized acceptance of Ebonics due to its widespread usage by both African Americans and African Canadians.
But I also believe her judgment may indeed had been understandably impaired in making such a statement stemming from the fact of herself, family, and friends, being attacked by one specific minority group.
I also do not believe these attacks to have been Christian spiritually related but more racially gang related considering the report of several “teenaged” assailants all wielding baseball bats.
Argh! I love how stories get distorted.
First of all, in both attacks on Ms. Cook, no- not ALL the attackers were ‘black’ (forgive the non-p.c. term). There were white kids attacking them, as well.
Secondly, in the first attack, her children were NOT involved. It was actually Ms. Cook and her husband who were beaten with baseball bats, and this happened jsut a few feet from their door. Ms. Cook had been returning home when she was attacked. She told her friend to run to the house, and then her husband came to her aid.
Ms. Cooks’s reference to ‘grammatically correct english’ was taken out of context and bastardized. During the interview, she continued to say that she and her family don’t use slang. As she lives in a part of town known to be ‘low-income’, yes, using proper english DOES make one stand out.
As for the youths who were attacked Friday night/Saturday morning- the original reporter did indeed quote them after interviewing them. The reporter attempted to interview neighbors but no one wished to comment. That include myself. I am not only Ms. Cook’s friend and business partner, but I also happen to live on the same street where these attacks happened.
Were these attacks solely motivated by religion? I can’t say for sure. But Shauna’s family (as well as my own) do not hide our Pagan ways. We don’t go knocking on doors, but we aren’t in the broom closet, either. We dress differently, we raise our children differently. And as we know from history, the minority usually get the crappy end of the stick.
I apologize for the anger I displayed while typing this, but after 2 days I’m kinda fed up…
Its tragic that such intolerance still stalks our kind even now. I believe a few protection spells are in order.
About 20 years ago I had lived in a large community trailer park where I was the only Pagan Witch. Many of the adults living there had strongly disagreed with my beliefs where even the police would nightly pull me over while coming home from work.
With the trailer park itself the adults would either point and laugh or continuously drop off bible tracks at my door or leave them on my windshield. But every once in the while a gang of young children would throw stones at me if they caught me down picking up the mail.
Called the police which did no good because the parents of these children would lie and cover for them.
So where before I had considered that maybe these unfortunate occurrences had seemed more gang like, now that we know there had been Caucasians involved might very well open up the possibility of there being local involvement by some religious organization.
And it wouldn’t be a first time nor the last.
Paula — thanks for clearing this up for us; these are all things I had wondered about but that none of the newspaper reporters had seemed to address. It’s a shame that any family should have to live in fear of physical violence in their own home, no matter what the motivation. I hope that Ms. Cook and her husband and kids are okay, and will be safer in their new place.
patti
I was so waiting for someone to say *hey that isn’t the whole story!*
From the first view of things one assumes this is a “black christian” against a “white pagan”. Now that the full story has come out, it just appears to be “ignorant mob” versus “a pagan who is trying to just live life”. It saddens me that something like this would even happen in 2007.
I am a ordained wiccan priest and practice my beliefs openly and without fear of scorn from any of my neighbors and friends. To bring racism due to being a witch or for use of proper english is ludcicous.The acts of an individual towards their neighbors can be often mistaken but I think theres much more to this story other than a witch being attacked. It sounds more like what happens to lots of people in low income areas throughout Canada and the USA every day. I wonder if her neighbors even know shes a hedge witch?
I’m commenting a bit late in the story,sorry about that. However, I was a little shocked to hear about it now. Sadly,a “misunderstanding” of a practice that is not your own,often leads to fear and hate. This can be turned in to fuel for mob tatics agaisnt that which inspired these emotions. Still the ones who did this should be punished by the law, whatever the reason behind the attacks. Tomorrow may bring changes in this kind of behavior, but for now we are trapped in “today”.
I work in a corporate environment and I’m a solitary. I am not out of the broom closet either. I don’t think this society is ready for us…we’re too advanced..spiritually and mentally.
But, I don’t understand why some pagans find it necessary to dress in all black and look really weird? I dress in regular clothes, in my feng shui fortune colors. It gives me power! I can see if they are a priestess/priest (or a water sign) but we don’t need to “stand” out and be goth all the time. Besides, you lose power when you openly let everyone know what you are. It invites psychic attacks (and regular attacks). This is why traditions have been secret for hundreds of years, to keep the power and to keep away attacks.
I believe when people stop killing others over religion (for instance 911) they’ll be ready to accept us. It’s not a question of us “hiding in fear” It’s more a question of that, the other people on this planet are primitive, war like and hateful. We should give them time to catch up to us. May take several hundred more years..but I’ve got a few more lives how about you?
In the mean time, this family should move to an area that’s more liberal.
This is a response to Diana’s post: no offense intended, but statements like “we’re too advanced,” or “the other people on this planet are primitive, warlike and hateful,” aren’t exactly going to further harmony between belief systems.
Not all non-pagans are primitive, warlike and hateful, any more than all pagans are enlightened, peaceful and loving. (Being arrogant and smug about how advanced “we” are compared to the primitives isn’t what I consider to be enlightened–or loving.)
This is in response to Diana’s post…
Shauna, herself, doesn’t where ‘all black’ because she’s a Witch. Most of her wardrobe is black because it’s flattering on her.
As for the comment in the article, she does have friends who are Goth, and some of those friends are also practising Pagans. The majority of the attackers in the second attack (the one that started this article) DO know that the young woman they attacked is Goth and Pagan. They went to school with her.
And in regards to your comment about us being too advanced, have you looked at the comments? I’ve been reading the comments left behind on various sites that have provided a link to the originating story (including witchvox.com). I, for one, was very disheartened, as many of the comments left by fellow Pagans were practically accusing this family of doing something wrong, of having started something that led to these attacks. Maybe as a whole, we aren’t all that advanced after all…
Even if she *were* a white supremacist, that’s no excuse for them being attacked. I may not agree with racists, but attacking anyone for their beliefs – no matter what those beliefs are – is wrong.
I liked the crack about “black clothes and grammatically correct English”. It reminds me of something I or one of my friends might say. And it’s true in some cases… humans, especially the really stupid kind, tend to focus on any difference, no matter how trivial. A penchant for black clothes and speaking proper English might be misconstrued by the rednecks as “uppity Satan-worshipper.” IE, a conflict between their belief that they are better than their victims for not being “in league with the Devil” and feeling threatened by their victims’ education. Humans tend to not like people who are smarter than they are, and the really stupid ones tend to get violent about it.
to comment from the source no that isn’t the whole story… the newspapers reflected only a small portion of the actual occurrances. Yes I am the Shauna who was named in the article and yes this was a multi racial issue unfortunately the individuals in question did more than physically attack us. Physical scars heal.
I had been verbally harrassed by these young thugs for weeks before the actual physical attack occurred. A friend and I were going to the bus stop so that we could take a break from child care I had left my husband and another friend in charge of the two youngest of my children. Rocks were thrown at us on our way out to the bus stop. We decided that it was not safe to go on our merry way. We called to my home and asked my husband to accompany us home, which he did. I was accosted less than 10 feet from my door. My husband tried to chase the thug off and was greeted for his trouble with three armed assailants, these boys were not trying to scare him they were aiming for his head and his ribs. I was attacked as well although I was far less damaged than he was. WE went to hospital to be mended. The police officer in attendence told us to keep our heads down. The next day the accusations started flying. “white power” was shouted at us almost every time we left our house.( by the way my immediate family is of mixed ethnic background) the accusations of white supremacy were groundless and I believe that they were meant to stir up the hill upon which we were living. The next accusations consisted of “witch, witch you’re a bitch”, “watch out she’ll cast a hex on you”, ” look out she’ll turn you into a toad” and many others… yes whether or not they had proof of my religion they assumed that they did. By the way I did not ever confirm or deny it to them in fact although I do live openly as a witch there has never been any conversation of it between me and my neighbors. However I have confirmed that I practice paganism to Salvation army office affiliated with our co-op. I hope this answers your questions
This is terrible!But the punishment to those that did this to her and her friends,will pay big time!It will come back on them three fold,if it hasn’t allready!
“But, I don’t understand why some pagans find it necessary to dress in all black and look really weird? I dress in regular clothes, in my feng shui fortune colors. It gives me power!”
Diana, can’t you see how black could be someone else’s power colour and their reason for wearing it? You don’t have to be a goth to wear black! You also don’t have to wear ‘weird’ clothes in the colour black, most Pagans I know don’t!
Plus, I really don’t like this ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality. Regardless of spiritual persuasion or ethnic origin, we’re all humans, all Earth’s Children and we have to learn to get along together. While it is awful to get attacked for your beliefs and the people involved should face the consequences, I believe that the rest of us are in no place to start slinging the mud. We only get one planet and She’s over-crowded as it is. Let’s give Her a break and start letting other people fight their own battles.
It’s prejudice, victimisation and premeditated, calculating violence plain and simple.
Oh swell, here we go again. Another group of people who know diddly-squat about Wicca/Paganism openly attacking something they don’t understand (rolls eyes and groans).
what exactally is “grammatically correct english”??
Hate crimes are illegal where I live, are they not there? The burning times were not that long ago, but now we have laws to prevent it. Or do we.??????
I do not understand this at all. What is this are we still leaveing in the drak ages or something. So what if she speaks grammaticly correct english. It just shows that she is highly educated, and i have never seen that as bad thing. So what if she dresses in balck it’s free world as she should be able to dress the way she likes to with out beeing attacked for doing so. Rember “Do as ye will..but harm none.”
PROUD TO BE WICCAN..PROUD TO BE PAGON
I really hope that Ms. Cook is alright! I’m just recently in learning about wicca, but isn’t it a rule/law in almost every religion not to hurt others? I mean, the 10 commandments has the harm no one law, and islam has one too. I can’t think of one that doesn’t have a rule against violence! It would seem that in this day and age that some people care more about violence then what they believe in.