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It’s always a good time to be reminded about the confounding number of murdered and missing First Nations women in Canada, but today it’s sadly even more relevant.
As reported in Metro, and via her own Facebook page, Loretta Saunders’ sister, Audrey, is seeking donations to help travel to Halifax next week for the preliminary inquiry into her sister’s murder.
Loretta was the pregnant SMU graduate student and Inuk woman killed back in February. Her body, unceremoniously dumped on the Trans-Canada Highway in Moncton, was found two weeks later.
Blake Leggette, Loretta’s roommate, and his girlfriend Victoria Henneberry have been charged with first-degree murder.
Audrey, who lives in St. John’s, is unemployed with a six-year-old daughter, but still wants to make it down to Halifax for some sort of closure in her sister’s death. Donation info can be found here. We’ll update this post with any more details we get on how to help, but you can always reach Audrey directly via her email or Facebook if you have anything to give.
This week was also the launch of a new community-led database website, documenting the violent deaths and disappearances of indigenous women across the country. The project is a joint effort by No More Silence, Families of Sisters in Spirit and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network. The organizers say it’s a way to chronicle the staggering number of cases, while also honouring the women in question and providing family members with a way to document their loved ones’ passing.
The site comes days before the inquiry into Loretta’s death, days after the unfathomable assault on Marlene Bird in Prince Albert, a year since Bella Laboucan-McLean’s death in Toronto, and likely dozens of other “anniversaries.”
There were renewed calls put forth this week during the 35 annual Assembly of First Nations, taking place in Halifax, for a national inquiry into missing or murdered aboriginal women. Back in May, prime minister Stephen Harper insultingly deemed such an investigation unnecessary, despite the almost 1,200 women missing or killed in the last three decades.
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This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2014.