APTN National News
OTTAWA–Holding large portrait photographs, the families of missing and murdered First Nations, Metis and Inuit women called out to the rest of the country to help preserve the memories of their loved ones and join their fight for justice.
Beneath the Peace Tower and cold blue skies, a crowd of at least 200 gathered Monday and listened quietly as the individual stories of some of the women in the photographs echoed off the stone walls of the Parliament buildings.
Their stories were part of the ceremony marking the fifth annual Sisters in Spirit Vigil.
There was the story told by Bridget Tolley, whose mother Gladys Tolley was hit and killed by a Surete du Quebec police car in October 2001.
Tolley said she is still searching for answers about her mother’s death which happened as she walked home, crossing a highway that cuts through the Kitigan Zibi First Nations reserve, about 150 kilometres north of Ottawa.
Tolley said she believed her mother’s death had been covered up by the investigating police agencies–among them the SQ and the Montreal police–to absolve the officer involved of wrongdoing.
She said her request for a public inquiry into the death had been rebuffed by the Quebec government earlier this year.
“For the past nine years I have been searching for answers. It has been a long and difficult journey,” said Tolley. “I will keep fighting. This fight is not only to restore my mother’s dignity, but to support all the missing and murdered Aboriginal girls and their families.”
There was the story by Aileen Joseph, from Six Nations, whose grandson Ivan killed himself 16 months after his mother, Shelly Lynne Joseph, was murdered in Hamilton, Ont., in 2004
“Not only did I lose my daughter. Due to the intensity of her death my grandson died from suicide 16 months later,” said Joseph, whose birthday is Oct. 5. “For my birthday in October 2005 he wrote a poem for her. It was his last poem he was ever to write.”
And then she read the poem.
“I wish you were still here. You know there are times in this world when every man in the world needs someone to talk to, someone who will be there to the end. Someone who will let you spread your wings…Yes I wish you were still here. You know even more than I like to admit from time to time, I still need your advice.
“I remember telling you about a girl. I remember letting you back into my world. I remember the first day you said goodbye. I remember every night after that I cried.
“And yes I wish you were still here, so right now there is nothing more in this world I would ever want than a friend to make up my mind….
“…A match to light my way while I search for a better day and when I find it, I’ll wish you were still here.”
And then Joseph delivered a message to the crowd, but aimed at the Conservative government.
“Thank you for coming and showing the world our women are loved and worth more than $10 million.
The Conservative government promised earlier this $10 million toward a strategy to deal with missing and murdered women.
No details have emerged since the March Speech from the Throne.
There was also Laurie Odjick, also from Kitigan Zibi, whose 16-year-old daughter Maisy Odjick disappeared on Sept. 6, 2008, along with friend Shannon Alexander, 17.
Odjick said that she felt abandoned by the First Nations political leadership.
She criticized both Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is from the community, and Assembly of First Nations national Chief Shawn Atleo, for not spending enough of their energies on helping the families of victims.
“You have Patrick Brazeau demanding accountability for the money First Nations receive…Who holds the police accountable for their lack of action, who holds them accountable for negligence and incompetence?” said Odjick. “Our native leaders should be here helping us. We have been asking too long to meet with you…I asked the national chief to meet with me…still no answer. They should hear our stories. They do not know what we are going through. No one does, unless you are living it.”
Brazeau was in the audience listening. Other political leaders stood in the crowd, including Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton.
Native Women’s Association of Canada president Jeannette Corbiere Lavell said the vigil was an important event to help the families of murdered and missing women deal with the grief of their loss.
“We cannot afford to lose any more of our women,” she said. “Each loss of our women and girls through violence, murder, through being abducted…it hits us gravely us grandmothers, mothers and sisters. This has to stop.”
Lavell said her organization had tallied at least 600 missing women cases across the country and that she believed there were probably many more.
AFN regional Chief Angus Toulouse, who spoke on behalf of the AFN leadership, said he was overwhelmed by the numbers of murdered and missing women.
“There has been so many,” said Toulouse. “It is sad that we have to stand here today to remind government and officials that this is important and critical for our families…to put the kind of closure they need to move on. Without the answers to many of the questions still there…it won’t go away.”
Shoshanna Tolley read a poem as part of the youth message for the day’s event.
“They say it is better to light a candle than curse the dark.”
There was a moment of silence.
Then the silence was punctured by the drumming and singing of women who led a procession of victims’ families back toward the street where their voices lingered and were lost.
