Walk4Justice stop in Saskatchewan to speak out against violence

The Walk4Justice group stopped for a week in Saskatoon as they made their way from Vancouver to Ottawa for their fourth and final year. Their cause is to honour and bring awareness to lost, missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.

The group members plan to reach their final destination of Ottawa on Sept. 19 at which point they will present their case to Parliament.

“Racism is very, very real but it still does not give anyone the right to murder these women,” said walker Bernice Williams,of Haida Gwaii, BC. “We really have to keep an eye out if a woman goes missing. How (the police and government) handle it.”

In 2008, the first year of the walk, Walk4Justice members presented Parliament with 2,932 names of missing, murdered and lost Aboriginal women and girls. This year they had a little under 4,200 names.

“You can see that’s drastically shifted up to more than half,” Williams said. “This is ongoing, it’s not stopped. These are really violent acts towards our women, racist attacks… over 4,000, that’s too many.”

Gladys Radek, a walker from Morice Town, BC, told those gathered at Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre the group wants answers.

She pointed out that 17 of the human rights listed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People are being violated with violence against Aboriginal women and children.

“We want direct action when it comes to missing and murdered Aboriginal women,” Radek said. “I say no more taking our children and no more violence against women.”

The Saskatoon event was hosted by Iskwewuk E-wichiwitichik (Cree for ‘Women Walking Together’). Sixty people came out to show their support.

University of Saskatchewan student and Thunderchild band member Marilyn Wapass sp
oke about her own experience in Saskatchewan.

“In every position I’ve worked in the systemic racism is so profound,” she said. “We face it, our children face it and if we don’t speak up about it our women and children will keep going missing.”

Walk4Justice is a non-profit organization, supported by donations and volunteers, started in January 2008 by Radek and Williams.

Group members are fighting for justice, closure, equality and accountability to support the families of missing and murdered women across Canada.

“This is a human rights issue. And we shouldn’t be treated the way we are just because we are brown,” said Wapass.

Photo caption: Fifteen people from Walk4Justice trekked on foot from Vancouver to Ottawa this summer to honour and bring awareness to lost, missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. The group stopped at the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre on July 24 for a community gathering hosted by Iskwewuk E-wichiwitichik (Women Walking Together).