[Indigsol] Walk4Justice: "And then let's go for that justice" part1

[Greg Macdougall]

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2194
"And Then Let's Go for that Justice" 


The Walk4Justice


by Maya Rolbin-Ghanie

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca









Some
of the many Indigenous women and men who walked across Canada to draw
attention to systemic abuses against First Nations women. Photo: Maya Rolbin-Ghanie





      
This article is part one of two on the Walk4Justice.

OTTAWA – It was hard to miss the giant Mohawk and Iroquois flags
painting the parliament buildings with their splashes of red, yellow,
brown and blue. On September 15, a crowd of about 250 was gathered in
Ottawa for the Walk4Justice Rally. Even at ten a.m., there was a
strong, shocking feeling of possibility in the air. This feeling would
only grow as the five-hour stretch of speeches progressed, making
parliament feel much more like a sacred village square.

According to a Canadian government statistic, young Indigenous women
are five times more likely than other women of the same age to die as
the result of violence. In honour of missing and murdered indigenous
women, the Walk4Justice began in Vancouver on June 21, 2008, Aboriginal
Day. Many First Nations women, men and children participated from
across the country, walking for 87 days, ending in Ottawa on September
15. 

The journey began with a vigil at the notorious Pickton farm site,
where confessed serial killer Robert Pickton murdered 30 women (many of
whom were sex-workers from Vancouver, and a third of whom were Native).
Among
the many powerful speakers at the rally in Ottawa was a group of First
Nations women who have devoted their lives to unpaid, front-line work
with women living in Vancouver’s poverty-stricken Downtown East Side
(DTES). 

Bernie Williams is a front-line worker, residential school survivor,
and Matriarch in the House of the Raven. She spoke of a lack of support
for the Walk from Vancouver as well as a less than smooth experience
along the way. 

"It’s been a long walk and a very emotional one. I would be lying to
you if I said that everything was all rosy out there on this journey.
It hasn’t been. Since we left BC, we’ve been followed. One of our women
has been stalked...We have compiled names all through the nation, all
through your territories. We’ve added another three more in the last
couple of days." 

The Walkers began with a list of 500 — a rough estimate of the
number of missing and murdered First Nations women in Canada over the
last three decades (76 of whom were from the DTES), and by the time
they arrived in Ottawa, they had compiled a list of 3,000 women. Upon
their arrival, there were three more women to add to the list, two of
whom are teens from nearby Maniwaki recently found to be missing. 

The aim of the Walk was to deliver the list of names to the Canadian
government and demand public inquiries into the many violent deaths.

Also present at the rally was Aboriginal rights lawyer and president
of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), Beverly Jacobs,
from the Mohawk Nation Bear Clan in Six Nations Grand River. Jacobs has
worked with Amnesty International as a lead researcher and consultant
on their report "Stolen Sisters: Discrimination and Violence Against
Indigenous Women in Canada." One of the many recommendations included
in the report was that Canada should support research into the causes
of violence against Indigenous women. There are currently no statistics
on the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women, only estimates.
She noted that although Canada is aware that reports have been done,
many have been shelved or ignored.
Seventy-four-year-old Mabel Todd, who has seen four of her family
members disappear, participated in the entire walk, making it clear
that she would not be ignored.
Cecilia, an Elder from Tofino, BC, cried while speaking of her missing granddaughter, Lisa Marie, who disappeared in 2002. 

"My daughter and I have a candle vigil every year, the day she went
missing. We light candles, give out posters, T-shirts, hoping that
somebody will see. Who knows what happened to her."

Richie Dominic walked for his aunt, Ramona Wilson, who went missing
in 1994 at the age of 16 on BC’s now infamous Highway 16. After ten
months, her remains were found, but no one has been held accountable to
this day, and there are countless cases just like hers. 

"Justice would mean a final bit of closure," says Dominic. "This is
what we need [pointing at the crowd]. We need numbers. We need to show
Canada that we do care. That the country does care."

The speakers, who ranged from youth to Elders in their nineties,
emphasized the fact that most of the cases they were addressing had not
been taken very seriously by police or the media. When the missing or
murdered women happen to be sex-workers, they are taken even less
seriously and their disappearances or deaths are rarely, if ever,
investigated to the point of resolution. 

In a radio interview, Jacobs cites the case of Pamela George as an
example of prevalent attitudes that act as obstacles to justice. 

George was a 28-year-old mother of two who struggled with poverty
and occasionally worked the sex-trade in Regina. She was murdered in
1995 by two white, male university students who picked her up, beat her
severely and left her by the side of the road. 

Testimony at the trial indicated that the two men had attempted to
pick up another Indigenous woman before they had encountered George.
The woman testified that when she had refused to go with them they had
called her "Indian trash" and a "squaw slut." 

According to a friend of one of the killers who also testified, one
of the young men later bragged about picking up an "Indian hooker,"
saying "She deserved it. She was an Indian." 

The case was tried before a white judge and all-white jury. The men
were each sentenced to a short six years in prison. According to
Amnesty’s Stolen Sisters Report, little attention was paid to the
victim throughout the trial; her sex-work was the main focus. The Crown
prosecutor told the jury to consider the fact that she was a
prostitute, "far-removed from them," and the judge told them to bear in
mind her profession when they considered whether or not she had
consented to sexual activity. A Court of Appeal decision briefly
considered the prosecutor and judge’s comments and concluded they "were
not made for the purpose of conveying a negative view of the victim to
the jury." 
Amnesty International expressed concern that comments of this type
might reflect social attitudes faced by sex-workers in general, and
Indigenous sex-workers in particular. 

Jacobs cites the case of Helen Betty Osbourne as an example of the
attitudes of many police authorities, also standing in the way of
justice.

Osborne was a Cree woman, kidnapped and murdered by four white men
in 1971. A Manitoba Justice Inquiry later concluded that the Canadian
Justice Authorities had failed Osbourne, and criticized a "sloppy,
racially biased investigation" that took over 15 years, and brought
only one man to justice. The inquiry concluded that police had long
been aware of who had been responsible for the murder. 

Thirty-three years later, when Osborne’s cousin was murdered, the
police reaction was similar. According to the young woman’s family,
officers showed up at two a.m., interrogated everyone present, and
searched their home. It was only six weeks later, when the Assembly of
Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) held a press conference, that an investigation
finally commenced. The former pow-wow dancer’s body was eventually
found. 


Walker Brenda Wilson explains why many families of victims eventually give up on police and the media: "There’s a lot of barriers to face in finding your loved one. You
have to prove to the authorities that your loved one is missing, that
they didn’t just run away. And you also have to prove to them that
they’re not all the same case…They each are an individual person, and
they each have different cases…They need to be individuals, because
when they left this world, they were individuals."

Wilson points out that many missing and murdered First Nations women
have been stuck with the same label, which reads: "Highway of Tears,"
and not given much more thought. More than 30 women have gone missing
or been found murdered on BC’s Highway 16 in the past 30 years. The
RCMP has confirmed four murders and five disappearances linked to the
Highway of Tears, only one of whom was non-Native. 
Many families are very angry about how they have been treated by
police, and object to having to wait a year or more in some cases for
investigations to commence, if they do at all.

Seeing little progress in police investigations, BC private
investigator Ray Michalko, a former RCMP officer, started probing into
the cases at his own expense in 2006. Michalko has had to contend with
numerous warnings from RCMP that he could be charged with obstruction
of justice if he does not "tread carefully," almost ending his
investigations more than once.

Walker Gladys Radek describes how front-line workers stand in for
both police and media on a daily basis. Radek, like Bernie Williams,
works front line in the DTES with homeless and poverty-stricken women,
many of whom work in the sex-trade for survival. 

"Families have approached us before they even go to the police. I
remember families walking up to Bernie on the street: Have you seen my
daughter, Have you seen my son? This is the kind of work she does and
everybody knows it. She doesn’t get paid for what she does. None of us
get paid for what we do. We work from our heart.”"

Maya Rolbin-Ghanie grew up in the woods and hopes to make it
back there at some point. She currently studies life and works from
Montreal.

The original version of this article was published in Oil Sands Truth (Fall 2008 print issue).


 
    






An onlooker at the Walk4Justice rally on Parliament Hill holds a traditional drum. Photo: Maya Rolbin-Ghanie



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