Walkers seek justice and hope to find closure

It has been 34 months since Gladys Radek lost her niece Tamara Lynn Chipman on the Highway of Tears, a notorious stretch of pavement between Prince George and Prince Rupert.
For more than a decade, young women have been disappearing from along this 720-km stretch of road, earning Highway 16 its sad moniker.
In an effort to bring awareness to her niece's disappearance, Radek co-founded walk4justice, a group made up of family members and supporters of missing and murdered women in Canada. Radek conceived of the walk last September while she was walking along the Highway of Tears to commemorate the second anniversary of her niece's disappearance.
The walk4justice group is traveling from Vancouver to Ottawa to raise awareness and "put a stop to the lack of accountability and to find closure," said Radek.
She hopes the walk will encourage people to take action to stop the violence against women that continues to plague Canadian society. She wants people to clue into the fact that there are a great number of names on the list of those murdered, either by strangers or through domestic violence.
The walk began on June 21. The group is scheduled to reach Parliament Hill to present a petition and address issues about missing and murdered women on Sept. 15. The walk4justice members will seek to speak with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chuck Strahl, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, to call for a full public inquiry.
"There are so many unsolved murders, we are demanding, not asking, demanding a public inquiry into the deaths of these women."
The walk4justice has brought many family members of murdered and missing women together to support their cause. The walk4justice has become an outlet for those suffering the grief of losing a loved one.
"I really appreciate all the families that are walking," said Brenda Wilson of Smithers, B.C. "My sister Ramona Lisa Wilson was murdered 14 years ago."
The biggest obstacle for Brenda was getting the police to believe Ramona had been the victim of foul play.
"We didn't really know what to do about we it had to argue with police. We couldn't convince police that she was really missing," said Wilson.
The number of missing and murdered women is estimated to be anywhere between 500 and 3,000. The question many organizations are asking is what has been done about it, and what will be done to prevent that number from continuing to rise?
The walk is widely supported by groups such as the First Nations Summit, Amnesty International, the Native Women's Association of Canada, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Assembly of First Nations-BC and the United Native Nations.
Anyone wanting to support the walk4justice can sign the online petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/glradek/petition.html. Or visit Radek's Web site at http://walk4justice.piczo.com for more details about the initiative.
"We will get justice, "said Radek. "We are going to get closure on Tamara."
Radek sends this message to other people along their travel route.
"Keep an eye out for us. If you have a loved one that you would like us to speak about in Ottawa, let us know. People know that we are going through their communities now. This is raising awareness. We just want to tell the families that we love them very much, and that we are thinking about their family members while we are doing this walk. Our women will have a voice. We want to be the voice for these women."