Some 60 Mi’kmaq and allies gathered last evening at the Halifax Regional Police HQ on Gottingen Street to remember and honour Eishia Hudson, who was murdered by Winnipeg police one year ago. Eishia was just 16 years old when she died. Last night’s memorial in Halifax, one of four such events Canada-wide, was a sad and moving but also an angry event.
Judy Haiven looks at the similarities between the Gerald Stanley and Raymond Cormier trials. “In each case, a white middle-aged man thinks nothing of ‘getting rid’ of his “problem” by committing a crime. Both victims were poor and Indigenous, from First Nations’ reserves. If an Indigenous person is murdered, it seems the benefit of the doubt goes to the white guy.”
Elizabeth Goodridge attended last night’s Not So Silent Vigil in the Halifax North End and wrote this heartfelt report
A new poem by El Jones. TRIGGER WARNING: 80-90 percent of women in prison are victims of physical and sexual assault. Yet because they are “criminals” what happens to them at the hands of the system must be something they deserve. When we talk about injustice to rape victims in Canadian courts where are their stories?
The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has encountered lots of obstacles, some of them self-inflicted. Here Delilah Saunders, sister of Loretta, explains why she continues to support the initiative. “My family and I will be in Halifax this coming October to testify and if it is delayed, then we’ll have to wait. I welcome delays and hiccups in the process if it means the Inquiry is done right and honours the Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and transgender loved ones we’ve lost.”
Delilah Saunders, sister of Loretta, talks to this year’s two recipients of the Loretta Saunders Community Scholarship Fund about the obstacles young indigenous women face in the pursuit of academic studies. “My goal is to reach for the sky and hope that the generation after me sees my life as a stepping stone. Then they’ll reach further for the stars.”
New NS Advocate reporter Rebecca Hussman attended the opening of the Walking With Our Sisters memorial at the Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery. “They were lights, even if their life circumstances were such, and there’s disregard for these women. But in there, that’s taken away, and they’re together, and the light shines there.”