Missing and Murdered Women: Valentine's Day

Showing posts with label Valentine's Day. Show all posts

Monday, February 15

Hundreds march for murdered, missing women

Monday, February 15, 2010 | 3:44 PM CT

CBC News

The third annual march for missing and murdered women in Manitoba drew about 400 people on Valentine's Day. (CBC)Hundreds of Winnipeggers took to the streets on Valentine's Day to honour Manitoba's murdered and missing women.

The third annual Women's Memorial March drew about 400 people to the downtown on Sunday.

Many wore a butterfly-shaped sign adorned with the name and picture of one of nearly 200 women murdered or missing in Manitoba since 1947.

Many others carried signs and photographs calling attention to the victims.

'All of the women we are marching for were somebody's loved ones.'— Lisa Michell, Women's Memorial March committee chair

"Valentines Day is a significant day to spend with your loved ones, and so it is actually very appropriate to have it on this day because all of the women we are marching for were somebody's loved ones," said Lisa Michell, chair of the march's local organizing committee.

The march originated in Vancouver 19 years ago and similar events were planned for Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Sudbury, London, Toronto, and Montreal.

Drawing attention to cases

Bernadette Smith's sister Claudette Osborne has been missing for more than eighteen months.

And she says marches like last night's help draw attention to the unsolved cases.

Lisa McFarland, who marched in the Winnipeg event in 2009 on behalf of her missing sister, Amber, helped organize the 2010 event.

Amber Lynn McFarland was last seen early on Oct. 18 at a bar in Portage la Prairie, Man. (RCMP handout)McFarland found comfort and support in the 2009 march, which moved her to become more involved.

"People come out to the march and they care about your issue and they just want to offer their support. There's peace of mind when you have that number," she said.

"It's a good thing for the community and it's nice not only to honour my sister, for me, but for all the women who have been violently murdered or are missing."

Amber McFarland was last seen the night of Oct. 18, 2008, at a bar in her hometown of Portage la Prairie, about 70 kilometres west of Winnipeg. The RCMP are now treating the case as a homicide.

Bernadette Smith, whose sister, Claudette Osborne, has been missing for more than 18 months, said the march keeps that case and others like it in the spotlight.

"If somebody knows something out there, and we know somebody knows something — you just don't go missing or be murdered without somebody knowing something — it's got to be weighing on that person's conscience," she said.

"Get it off your chest, call Crime Stoppers. It's anonymous. Help give some of those families answers."

Claudette Osborne, who also goes by the name Penny, was last seen July 24, 2008, in the area of Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street, in Winnipeg's North End. There has been no trace of her since then.

Hundreds in Calgary march in memorial for missing, murdered women

Victims Remembered

By Suzanne Wilton, Calgary Herald February 15, 2010 7:44 AM

Several hundred people took part in the second annual women's memorial march to honour missing and murdered women on Sunday February 14, 2010.

Photograph by: Gavin Young, Calgary Herald

CALGARY - Tears of both grief and joy were shed Sunday as a crowd about 300-strong gathered for an emotional march to honour the murdered and missing women of southern Alberta.

"The tears of the heart are sometimes very painful. We can learn to live with them but they don't leave us," said a native elder who cried as he said a prayer to launch the second-annual local Valentine's Day Memorial March.

Led by a banner bearing 3,000 names of missing or murdered women, the march made its way from the Scarboro Church in the southwest, down 17th Avenue to 14th Street S.W., where participants lined the sidewalks and lingered for several minutes, waving to motorists who honked in support of the cause.

Some carried placards with photos of their dead loved ones while others held paper cut-out hearts with their names written on them.

For Dolores Pepper, events like the Valentine's Day march are a chance to honour the daughter she lost as well as reignite interest in her still unsolved murder. Jennifer Joyes was 17 when she was killed in 1991, her body discarded and not found for several months.

"(These events) bring up my hope, my prayers. I feel like maybe . . . it will jog someone's memory," said Pepper.

Pepper was joined by a large family contingent, including several grandchildren. They were among a diverse crowd, which included a group who travelled by bus from the Siksika reserve east of Calgary.

"I'm dumbfounded with the amount of people who turned out," said an emotional Suzanne Dzus.

Dzus previously participated in memorial marches in Edmonton and in Vancouver, where the event began 19 years ago after the brutal murder of an aboriginal woman.

But when she moved to Calgary, she realized there wasn't an event here, so she set out to organize one and is surprised at how quickly it's grown.

"We've had this amazing response. This is heartwarming to know at least there are a whole group of people who really care."

As someone of aboriginal descent, Dzus said the majority of women in her family have experienced violence in one form or another.

But she said violence against women knows no boundaries.

"It doesn't care if you are rich or poor, black or white or Indian, although I will say that if you are indigenous, you are more likely to be targeted as a victim of violence," said Dzus.

Shelley Long Time Squirrel can certainly attest to that. She's lost four women in her life to murder, three of them killed on downtown Calgary streets and one whose remains were found on serial killer Robert Pickton's farm near Vancouver.

"I want them to be remembered," said Long Time Squirrel.

"They're missed and loved so much."

Judy Trimble walked in memory of her daughter Cara Ellis, whose remains were also found on Pickton's farm in 2004.

"It has been rough going ever since," said Trimble, who was joined by son Steven Ellis and his wife Lori-Ann.

"I'm hoping she's smiling down on us right now."

Trimble said it gives her comfort to march with others who've experienced a similar loss. But she also wants to ensure that people don't forget about women like Cara, who spent five years on a missing person's list before police took seriously her disappearance off downtown Vancouver's east-side streets.

"I hope they receive the message that they cannot drive by and let it keep going. This abuse and violence has to stop."

swilton@theherald.canwest.com

Sunday, February 14

Stolen Sisters march a declaration of love

Missing aboriginal women 'lost but not forgotten,' participants say

By Katie DeRosa, Times Colonist

February 14, 2010 6:48 PM

Stolen Sisters Memorial March participants follow banner on Pandora Avenue on Sunday.

Photograph by: Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

To the sounds of First Nations drumming and a mournful version of Amazing Grace, an estimated 200 people remembered missing and murdered indigenous women at Thunderbird Park Sunday.

“We came to support and pray with other people,” said Joanne Young, who held a poster of a smiling girl with dark hair — her daughter Lisa Marie Young. Lisa Marie, then 21, disappeared in Nanaimo in 2002 after accepting a ride home from a nightclub with a stranger.

Victoria’s Stolen Sisters memorial march was one of 10 such events that took place across Canada. The local march, organized by the Native Students Union at the University of Victoria, began outside the Our Place drop-in centre on Pandora Avenue near Vancouver Street at 11 a.m. and culminated at Thunderbird Park on Belleville Street near the Royal B.C. Museum around 1 p.m.

Joanne Young and Lisa Marie’s grandmother, Cecelia Arnet, say they are tortured by the fact that her body has never been found and no one has ever been charged in her disappearance. They say that pain unites them with the other people walking in the march, as well as a shared wish that justice will be done.

Marchers, many of whom held signs that said “Lost but not forgotten,” stopped at two places on Government Street where indigenous women were last seen before they disappeared. They also paused to remember 20-year-old Ariana May Simpson, who was pushed in front of a bus at the corner of Pandora Avenue and Quadra Street last February.

Trish Pal of the Native Students Union said Valentine’s Day was chosen for the march because it’s “a day to show our love, so we show our love to these women.”

Fifty-five-year old Maxine Little said she brought her five grandchildren, ages four months to 10 years, so they can understand some of the issues facing indigenous women.

“I’ve been telling them about the ladies who have been going missing,” she said. “We’re thinking about them today.”

Janet Rogers, a co-organizer of the event, said she hopes the march will pressure the B.C. government into taking the issue of missing women seriously, especially given that 18 women have disappeared or been killed along the so-called “Highway of Tears” between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

“For this government to not respond to this issue is an act of prejudice,” she said.

kderosa@tc.canwest.com

March held in memory of missing and murdered indigenous women

Updated: Sun Feb. 14 2010 6:55:06 PM
ctvmontreal.ca

Montreal was among the cities across the country that held a Memorial March for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women on Sunday.

The annual Valentine's Day march was first organized by a community group in Vancouver after a woman was murdered there in 1991. The event was gradually taken on by groups in Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Sudbury and Toronto.

This year marks the first time the march took place in Montreal.

It began at Parc Emilie-Gamelin and concluded with a commemorative ceremony at Parc des Ameriques.

"We're trying to promote awareness about the fact that indigenous women are about five times more likely than other women to die as a result of violence," said Maya Rolbin-Ghanie of the Missing Justice group.

A study found that 521 indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered in Canada over the past four decades.

Some family members of the victims say they've been left feeling abandoned.

"The family feels so alone. You don't know where to go, where to turn to have support," said Bridget Tolley, whose mother was struck and killed by an SQ police cruiser nine years ago.

Irkar Beljaars, who belongs to the Sisters in Spirit group, said many members of the community feel there are double standards in the way police investigate.

"(They say) ‘Oh, they probably ran away, give it a couple of days, they'll probably come back.' That's what some families have heard," Beljaars said.

Ellen Gabriel, who represents the group Quebec Native Women, said the community is seeking justice.

"Families are just asking for equality -- to be treated the same as any body else," Gabriel said.

March held in memory of missing and murdered indigenous women

Victoria Stolen Sisters march remembers missing women

Image via Wikipedia

Marchers carry signs saying 'Lost but not forgotten'

By Katie DeRosa, Victoria Times Colonist February 14, 2010 12:26 PM

An estimated 200 Victorians took to the streets this morning as part of a national event to remember indigenous women who are missing or have been murdered.

Victoria’s Stolen Sisters march, one of 10 such events taking place across Canada, was organized by the Native Students Union at the University of Victoria. The march, accompanied by First Nations drumming and prayers, began outside the Our Place drop-in centre on Pandora Avenue near Vancouver Street and culminated at Thunderbird Park on Belleville Street near the Royal B.C. Museum.

Trish Pal of the Native Students Union said Valentine’s Day was chosen for the march because it’s “a day to show our love, so we show our love to these women.”

Fifty-five-year old Maxine Little said she brought her five grandchildren, aged four months to 10 years, to the march so they can understand some of the issues facing indigenous women.

“I’ve been telling them about the ladies who have been going missing,” she said. “We’re thinking about them today.”

Janet Rogers, a co-organizer of the event, said she hopes the march will pressure the B.C. government into taking the issue of missing women seriously, especially given the 18 cases of missing or murdered women on the so-called “Highway of Tears” between Prince George and Prince Rupert.

“For this government to not respond to this issue is an act of prejudice,” she said.

TIMES COLONIST

http://bit.ly/cs0Nnn

Friday, February 12

Family remembers Danita Big Eagle, pays tribute to other missing women

By BARB PACHOLIK, Leader-PostFebruary 12, 2010 9:03 PM

Dianne Big Eagle whose daughter Danita Big Eagle (shown in photos) went missing from Regina on Feb. 11, 2007.

Photograph by: Roy Antal, Leader-Post

REGINA — On a day devoted to love, a Regina family will gather to remember a beloved mother, daughter and sister who vanished three years ago and to also pay tribute to other missing women.

When she began planning the Miye Kiksuyapi Round Dance — meaning "Don't forget me" — for Valentine's Day, Dianne Big Eagle couldn't bring herself to host an event that would mark only the disappearance of her daughter Danita.

"I know how everyone else feels," she said of those she's met through Saskatchewan Sisters in Spirit, a group dedicated to missing persons. Among the invited speakers are families who still search and those whose missing relatives have been found dead or slain. Sunday's gathering will be held at Sacred Heart, 1380 Elphinstone St., beginning at 6 p.m., followed by a feast, speakers, and a round dance "for healing, wellness and awareness."

Danita Faith Big Eagle is one of 99 known, long-term missing persons in Saskatchewan, including 11 in Regina.

"Your normal like goes out the door," said Dianne Big Eagle. She lives with the question: "Are they going to find her today?"

Danita, then 22, disappeared from the lives of her family, including two young children, on Feb. 11, 2007. Her mother is now raising Danita's children, age six and three, who find comfort hugging a blanket with their mother's face on it.

"I tell them mom will come home when she's good and ready. In the meantime, grandma's here."

Sadly, Big Eagle knows much about loss — her own mother was murdered when Big Eagle was a child; she lost a child in infancy; and she is a victim of the residential school system. Her grandchildren are what keep her going when she starts to lose heart. She wonders if she hangs on too tightly to them, but she couldn't stand to lose them too.

Danita is the youngest of Big Eagle's five children — "my baby." She's also "a bit wild," added her mother, who worries about the harm that might have come to her. Big Eagle last heard from Danita around 10 p.m. on Feb. 11 three years ago when she phoned to say she was dropping off some money for her mother to hang onto for her. Big Eagle could hear loud music and voices in the background. Danita came by a short time later, then left again. She was last seen in the 800 block of Victoria Avenue.

Big Eagle has searched the streets of Regina, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, stood on the steps of Parliament to bring attention to missing women, spoken at schools about making good choices, and heard plenty of stories about her daughter's possible fate. Until anything is certain, Big Eagle chooses to live with hope.

She recalls the missing women who have been found dead. "Theirs ended badly — but I still have a 50-50 chance she's still alive." At the same time, she can't ignore the other possibility.

During the recent searches for Carlene Walters, a 52-year-old Regina woman missing since Dec. 30, Big Eagle sympathized with her family. A part of her hoped the searchers might also stumble upon Danita. "There's a dread of the worst," she said.

Moments later, the optimism creeps back into Big Eagle's voice. "You haven't heard anything bad — so hope for the best."

bpacholik@leaderpost.canwest.com

LEADER-POST

http://bit.ly/9NNiuK

Media Invited to Stand with Missing and Murdered Women

Press asked to be part of the change, not perpetuate the problem

by Moira Peters →Original Peoples, →Media Analysis, →Politics, →2010 Olympics

"I grew up as a little girl not trusting those who were supposed to be looking after me. I was brought up to be ashamed of who I was. It took me years to feel good in this body, to accept that these brown hands are mine. Finally, I can say I am proud to be an Indigenous woman."

Carol Martin, a victim services worker at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, was one of four Indigenous women "honouring" the media this morning at the Carnegie Theatre on East Hastings Street in Vancouver.

Martin, along with Mona Woodward of the Rain City Housing Coalition, Fay Blaney, founder of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network and Dalannah Bowen, Director of Interurban Gallery, invited media to a press conference in lieu of including the press in the February 14 march to honour 3,000 murdered and missing women in Canada.

Journalists are not permitted to attend the ceremony in the Carnegie Theatre at noon on Valentine's Day, and are asked not to film or snap pictures during the march, when friends and families of murdered and missing women will stop to perform healing ceremonies at sites where women have died.

"Nineteen years ago, a Coast Salish woman's body was found in parts in Victoria. She had been mutilated. The memorial for her death lasted 10 minutes," said Blaney. "The community [of Indigenous women] here recognized there's a lot of that."

Eighteen years ago, the first women's memorial march was organized.

"We want to uphold the memorial part of it, to extend respect to the families," she said. Even the organizers of the march, many of whom are political activists, do not bring their politics to the march.

Owen, on behalf of the women giving the press conference and women everywhere, called on the media to "be part of the change, not perpetuate the problem."

The problem – that the list of murdered and missing women, most of them Indigenous, has reached 3,000 since the 1970s; that the list is growing; and that there has not yet been a public inquiry into any of the cases – is exacerbated, according to Owen, by a media that misrepresents the stories of women beaten, violated, kidnapped and murdered across Canada.

Indigenous women in Canada deal with more health problems and homelessness than any other demographic group. "Our children are being taken away from us; our women are being killed," said Martin. "We are homeless in the very country that gets rich on our land."

With billions being spent on the Olympics this year in Vancouver, Owens said, Canadians need to "examine the other side of the coin." Why, when so many public resources are being spent on the 2010 Games, has there not even been a public inquiry into the systematic violence suffered by the most vulnerable Canadians?

If we live in a democracy, said Owens, where is equality? Where is justice?

"Media is a powerful vehicle. We challenge you to give this profile its proper due. Stand with us," she said.

March organizers were asked whether the Olympics in Vancouver would draw attention to – or by the same token, detract from – attention to the march because people would be focused on Vancouver and the Games.

"Our march happens to fall on the same day as the beginning of the Olympic Games. We're not going to strain our brains over it," said Martin.

"We would suggest we will have more people than ever," said Owen. "Not only is the world watching, but women of the world know this issue."

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympics (VANOC) had suggested the march change its route, which has remained constant for 19 years. In response, 4,000 signatures in support of the march keeping to its original route were collected in less than three days.

Valentine's Day solidarity marches are expected in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Sudbury, London, Montreal and Victoria.

"This is about living with dignity and respect in our daily lives," said Owen. "As long as we keep working, the story will be told."

---

The 19th annual Women's Memorial March will begin at 1pm on February 14 at Carnegie Theatre. March organizers will host a media scrum at 11:15 am on the Carnegie patio, and the march will end at Oppenheimer Park. Photograph by Murray Bush.

Vancouver Media Co-op

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/2671

Wednesday, February 3

Calgary's 2nd Annual Valentine's Day Memorial March, Sunday February 14, 2010.

Scarboro United Church
134 Scarboro Ave. SW, Calgary
The march starts at 2:00 pm
Please arrive by 1:30 pm
Parking is available on site. Media welcome.

For more information please email: memorialmarchcalgary@live.ca

Sunday, February 15

March honours murdered women

By KATIE SCHNEIDER, SUN MEDIA
February 15, 2009

Carrying photos and wearing the names of loved ones on paper hearts, dozens of people marched together yesterday in remembrance of murdered and missing women.

Joining Canadians in six other cities, 50 to 60 people, many wiping tears, walked through Kensington during Calgary's inaugural Valentine's Day Memorial March.

Cassandra Winiewski, 26, walked for her friend Melissa Munch, slain in Edmonton in 2003, as well as for other murdered women she never knew like Wendy Hewko and Tara Landgraf, both killed in Calgary in the summer of 2007.

"They should not be forgotten and the violence against them should not be forgotten," she said.

"This is so amazing, it's so powerful -- you can feel them all here."

Munch, who she described as "a little pixie" with a cute laugh, had been involved with prostitution at the time of her murder.

"She was my first best friend and she went down the wrong path -- the minute I heard about this I felt in my heart to speak for her," she said.

Scott Fiddler, 42, marched in memory of Landgraf, his friend whose cries for help were unanswered when she was violently sexually assaulted and slain in Ramsay.

"I'm here because I'm angry she asked for help and no one called the police and her killer is still at large -- I'm here because Tara is not," he said.

Organizer Suzanne Dzus said the march, which brought out members of Native communities and representatives from women's shelters, was a chance to raise awareness about the nationwide problem of violence and show love for its victims.

"They were mothers, grandmothers, sisters -- every one of them was someone's daughter," she said.

"Valentine's Day is about love and that's one thing that hasn't been shown to these women."

Alberta Liberal leader David Swann, who also marched, agreed the whole community needs to address violence against women.

"We need to be leaders in the community to the most violated and vulnerable because ultimately they are all our family," he said.

Because 1,700 women couldn't find space at the Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter due to staffing shortages last year, more provincial funding is needed, Swann said.

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Where have my sisters gone?
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/fight-the-fading-of-the-light/

Saturday, February 14

Hundreds march through Vancouver to rally for missing women.

The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Her mother and two sisters died in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside - their bodies beaten and left to die, likely by the dealers that were fuelling their habits.

But Skundaal, a Haida woman who uses only one name, says their cases received little attention, their deaths little justice, and to her, the explanation is tragically simple.

"It's just another Indian," Skundaal said Saturday before an annual march to remember missing women in Vancouver and across B.C.

"These are hate crimes against women, women of colour, aboriginal women."

Hundreds of people snaked through the Downtown Eastside to the beat of aboriginal drumming to highlight the dozens of women, many aboriginal, who have died or gone missing from Vancouver or B.C.'s so-called Highway of Tears.

They include the six women Robert Pickton has been convicted of killing and the 20 others whose deaths he is still charged with.

There are the 18 women who've gone missing along the western stretch of Highway 16 across northern British Columbia.

And there are others, including more than 30 still on the Vancouver Police's list of women missing from the Downtown Eastside.

Many of those who attended the Valentine's Day march, some family members of the missing or dead women, focused on the poverty and racism that is the root of many of the problems the women faced - and, they said, the reason they are still waiting for justice.

"If there were women missing or had been murdered who had European ancestry, who came from middle-class backgrounds, there would be outrage, this would be on the front pages every day," local activist Angela MacDougall said before the event began.

"This is about racism, this is about hate. It's just enough."

Police have long been criticized for ignoring cases of missing women in the Downtown Eastside or failing to realize that many of disappearances may have been the work of a serial killer.

Calls for a special police unit to handle such cases began in the early 1990s, but the missing women task force wasn't set up until 1998.

And as recently as 1999, less than three years before the raid at Pickton's notorious farm in Port Coquitlam, Vancouver police said they didn't believe some of the women had been murdered, much less by the same person.

Police have defended their work on the missing women files, and have insisted they have tried to build a better relationship with residents in the Downtown Eastside.

They say the missing women task force continues to investigate outstanding cases.

But that's cold comfort for families who have already lost their sisters, daughters and mothers.

Jason Fluery, whose sister Mona Wilson is among the women Pickton was convicted of murdering, told a packed room at a community centre before the march that police and politicians have turned a "blind eye" to the missing women.

"My sister was a person with a heart and skin and blood like everybody else in this room," said Fluery.

"It goes on everywhere down here, because nobody cares. Our people are dying every day because of it."

Fluery and others repeated calls for a public inquiry into the Pickton case and the other missing women in the province.

B.C.'s attorney general has said any decision about a possible inquiry would have to wait until Pickton's legal saga is finished.

Pickton is appealing his convictions and the Crown has said it doesn't plan on prosecuting the outstanding 20 charges if Pickton's earlier convictions are upheld.

Ernie Crey's younger sister, Dawn Crey, disappeared in December 2000 at age 43. Her DNA was found on Pickton's farm in 2004, although he was never charged in her death.

Crey said if the legal process stops, the families of the women who were connected to the Pickton farm but for whom no one was convicted or even charged may never know what happened.

"It causes me anxiety and anguish," said Crey.

"My concern is that that is where it will all end. This leaves a question mark for a family like mine."

Rallies and marches were also planned in Victoria, Calgary and Winnipeg.
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