Mural: No More Stolen Sisters

Isha Jules in Enderby, BC, at the mural painted to raise awareness that there are 3 missing women in the area since last year. The three women went missing within a month & a half of each other.  Caitlin Potts, Ashley Simpson and Deanna Wertz all missing for 12-16 months now.  All from within Splatsin First Nation and Secwepmeculu.

MMIW inquiry opens with story of Mary Johns, a mother and residential school survivor

Mary John, victim of a serial killer in 1982.

APTN National News, May 30, 2017

The long-awaited start to the murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls national inquiry began with the story of Mary Johns who was murdered by a serial killer and buried in a potter’s field years before the family ever discovered her fate.

Frustrated families vow to ‘blockade’ missing and murdered inquiry hearings

Jocelyn Wabano-Iahtail, right, comforts Shirley Gunner, as John Fox looks on during a news conference regarding the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls national inquiry in Ottawa. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

Father of murdered woman says inquiry is at a ‘crisis’ point

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News, May 23, 2017

Some family members of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls are vowing to blockade meetings of the national inquiry to protest what they call a disastrous start.

“We are prepared to take blockades against this inquiry, if it goes through our communities we will be there, it doesn’t matter where,” John Fox told reporters Tuesday.

Video: Women’s Warrior song #MMIW Event

posted to Yutube by Cheryl James on Oct 15, 2013

Keewatin Otchitchak Traditional Women’s Drum singing the Women’s Warrior Song, originally from the Sta’timc at Mount Currie, BC.

Ottawa launches long-awaited inquiry into missing, murdered indigenous women

By Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press, August 3, 2016

GATINEAU, Que. – Family members wiped away tears Wednesday as the federal government outlined the terms of an inquiry into the phenomenon of missing and murdered aboriginal women – along with a price tag nearly $14 million higher than expected.

Three cabinet ministers were on hand inside the Museum of History’s great hall – a space bedecked with long houses, totem poles and artwork dedicated to Canada’s First Nations – to hand the reins of the nascent inquiry to independent commissioners.

More than 100 indigenous women in N.L. murdered or missing, meeting told

Rally for missing/murdered Indigenous women. CBC.

Pre-Inquiry meeting held at the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre

By Mark Quinn, CBC News, March 31, 2016

A shocking number was revealed at meeting in St. John’s Wednesday: more than 100 indigenous women and girls are estimated to have been murdered or gone missing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It is a big issue, and that’s the point,” said Angus Andersen, who hosted the gathering of about a dozen people at the St. John’s Native Friendship Centre.

Highway of Tears gets $3M for transportation safety plan

Billboard warns against hitch hiking along Highway 16 in northern BC, also known as the “Highway of Tears” for the high number of missing/murdered women.

Funding comes after a recent meeting between transportation officials and First Nations leaders in the area

CBC News, Dec 14, 2015

The B.C. government is committing $3 million to improve public transit along B.C.’s so-called Highway of Tears.

The funding comes following a recent meeting between transportation officials and First Nations leaders in the area, to address concerns about the number of women who have gone missing or been murdered while hitchhiking Highway 16, which runs between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

Winnipeg police charge man, 53, with second-degree murder in Tina Fontaine death

Tina Fontaine, whose body was found in Winnipeg’s Red River on Aug 17, 2014.

by APTN National News, December 11, 2015
Winnipeg police have charged a 53-year-old man with second-degree murder in the death of Tina Fontaine.

Raymond Joseph Cormier, 53, was arrested Wednesday in the Vancouver area.

Fontaine, 15, was pulled from Winnipeg’s Red River on Aug. 17 2014.

Prime target: How serial killers prey on indigenous women

Annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women, Vancouver, BC.

Kathryn Blaze Baum & Mathew McClearn, Globe and Mail, Nov. 22, 2015

Indigenous women in Canada are roughly seven times more likely than non-indigenous women to die at the hands of serial killers, according to a Globe and Mail analysis that found at least 18 aboriginal females were victims of convicted serial killers since 1980.

New Highway of Tears documents uncover residents’ deep concerns

At least 18 women and girls, many of them aboriginal, have been murdered or disappeared along Highway 16 and the adjacent routes, Highway 5 and Highway 97, since 1969. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

36 pages of documents include reports about topics including missing women, hitchhiking and bus service

By Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press/CBC News, Nov 4, 2015

Newly released documents reveal northern British Columbia residents have deep concerns about transportation services along the so-called Highway of Tears — despite government statements about improved safety, New Democrats say.

Maurine Karagianis, the NDP critic for women, said Tuesday a year-old freedom of information request reveals residents want better public transportation on Highway 16, which runs more than 700 kilometres, from Prince George to Prince Rupert.