Verdict in murder trial prompts protests across Canada

The March 18 acquittal of the man charged with the 2011 murder of Cindy Gladue sparked a series of protests and rallies across the country on April 2. In Toronto, about 400 people gathered for a rally in front of the Bay Street office of the Ontario Attorney General.

Forty-year old Gladue bled to death in the bathtub of an Edmonton hotel room. She had an 11-centimetre cut in her vaginal wall. A jury found Bradley Barton, a 46-year-old trucker from Mississauga, not guilty of first-degree murder and manslaughter. The court was told that he had hired Gladue for two nights of sex and the injury that resulted in her death was caused by rough consensual sex.

Rally organizer Audrey Huntley of Silence No More read a statement prepared by Gladue’s mother, Donna. The crowd heard about a young woman who loved cooking, enjoyed listening to music, made friends easily and was close to her siblings and her uncles and aunties.

“Cindy was a kind-hearted person who would help you any way she could,” Huntley read. Gladue had three daughters and, because she was a single parent, had a difficult time raising them. Her mother stepped in and raised the girls.

“Cindy loved her girls so much,” the statement said, “...and she was thankful for what I did...Losing my daughter was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. Going to trial was very hard. Then, when they found him not guilty, that was a shock.”

Lawyer Christa Big Canoe, legal advocacy director at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, expressed her shock, sorrow and disbelief, not only at the acquittal, but also that Cindy Gladue’s “most intimate parts” were presented as evidence in court.

“Cindy was a human being,” she said. “She was a human being regardless of her profession. She was a human being. It’s really that simple.”

When she first read the story, Big Canoe said she didn’t see the words, “preserved vagina”. She automatically assumed it was a model similar to what you find in a doctor’s office. When she read it a second time and read the words out loud, “I was sick in my stomach,” she said.

“My eyes began to water… and I cried. And I was angry. Angry and sad for two whole days.”

The affront to Gladue’s dignity was horrific, Big Canoe said, “her dignity as a human being and the dignity that should have been afforded to her family in respect of the loss of her life.”

The right to privacy does not end at death, Big Canoe said, “and there is nothing more private than the intimate body parts of a woman. In Indigenous cultures, those body parts, whether a woman chooses to or not, are life-creating and sacred. And to display them in a court of justice to demonstrate a medical theory is unacceptable.”

The Cindy Gladue murder trial exemplifies how the Canadian legal system does not adequately look at or address Indigenous perspectives, protocols and concerns, Big Canoe said, and cannot be counted on to resolve the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

This verdict and this trial, “requires us to keep talking about what we believe is acceptable and not acceptable. It’s supposed to be our justice system too. It’s supposed to be informed by what we need it to be. There has to be a recognition of what our community wants,” Big Canoe said.

Audrey Huntley reminded the crowd that all the families of missing and murdered women, “are really hurting right now. This has been really triggering for all of them and they need our love and support right now.” She encouraged people affected to seek help and support.

It was announced during the rally that the Alberta government will be appealing the March 18 court decision. The announcement was met with deafening cheers and applause. A healing dance by a young shawl dancer in honor of Indigenous women and girls ended the rally.