Hundreds rally for missing, murdered women inquiry
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
Hundreds of Manitobans marched in downtown Winnipeg July 11, 2012, calling for a national inquiry into the hundreds of aboriginal women who missing and murdered. (JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun)Photo by JOYANNE PURSAGA/Winnipeg Sun
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If your country doesn’t answer, take your demands to the world.
That’s the strategy of Manitoba First Nations leaders who led a protest of about 300 Manitobans through downtown Winnipeg on Wednesday, demanding a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.
“Now we’re going to the United Nations. We’re going to get the world to ask Canada, ‘What are you doing with missing and murdered women in your country?’” said David Harper, Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO).
On June 29, Harper joined other chiefs and MP Niki Ashton to set a July 10 deadline for the federal government to launch a national inquiry or other “meaningful” action. The call came shortly after police charged Shawn Cameron Lamb with the alleged serial murders of three aboriginal Winnipeg women: Tanya Nepinak, Lorna Blacksmith and Carolyn Sinclair.
The group received “absolutely no response” by that deadline, said Harper.
More than 80 aboriginal women are murdered or missing in Manitoba, out of more than 600 across Canada.
Harper said this national shame requires immediate action.
“We don’t hear China missing 600 women. We don’t hear New Zealand missing 600 women, but Canada is,” said Harper. “We have to go to the international community on a fact-finding mission.”
Susan Caribou, who is still searching for the body of her niece, Tanya Nepinak, hopes the lobby will ensure lost loved ones are remembered.
“It’s very hard to not have a body to bury and have that closure for the family. It’s very stressful every night thinking of where her body might be,” said Caribou, who wore a large sign with the statements ‘Missing Tanya Jane Nepinak’ and ‘We want her back.’
Caribou said two of her friends, Claudette Osborne and Irma Murdoch, went missing before her niece and her cousin Carolyn Sinclair vanished.
Several candidates for national chief set to compete in a July 18 Assembly of First Nations vote vowed to push for a federal inquiry and lobby the UN to do the same.
The walk began at The Forks with a tobacco ceremony, drumming and singing in honour of missing and murdered women. The group then walked with horses, drummers and a police escort to Portage and Main.
Twitter: @pursagawpgsun
