Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Video of drummers and speakers at the Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women

admin — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:58:00 +0000

Feb 14th, 2013: Over 700 gathered at St. Laurent Metro this Valentine’s Day to make this year, Montreal’s 4th annual memorial march for missing and murdered women the largest yet.

The first women’s memorial march was held in 1991 in response to the murder of a Coast Salish woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Her name is not spoken today out of respect for the wishes of her family. Out of this sense of hopelessness and anger came an annual march on Valentine’s Day to express compassion, community, and caring for all women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Unceded Coast Salish Territories. Twenty-two years later, the women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of all missing and murdered women.

Video by Spencer Mann

Ellen Gabriel at Memorial March for Missing & Murdered Women

admin — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:35:53 +0000

Feb 14th 2013, Montreal. The will to fight comes from a heart overflowing with love.

Ellen Gabriel is a Native/human right activist, and former president of Quebec Native Women (QNW). She joined the members of her community of Kanehsatà:ke in March 1990 as they erected barricades to protect The Pines from the expansion of a golf course in the municipality of Oka. She was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and then by her community to be a spokesperson for them during the 1990 Oka Crisis.

Video by Spencer Mann.

Feb 14 2013 March for Missing and Murdered Women in photos

admin — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:47:05 +0000

Black and white photos: Thien Vo.

Colour photos: Irina Gaber.

2013 Annual Memorial March for Missing & Murdered Women

admin — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:57:41 +0000

Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (Missing Justice) invites you and yours to attend, spread the word about, and participate in this year’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Women on Thursday February 14th, 6pm at St. Laurent metro.

Twenty-two years later, the women’s memorial march continues to honour the lives of missing and murdered women.

This year, Montreal holds it’s 4th Annual Memorial March.

****There will be a bus this year from Kahnawake, and back, organized by Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services. The bus will leave the KSCS Parking lot at 4:30 pm and return at approx 9 pm. Start (drop off) at St Laurent metro and pick up (to return home) at Parc des Ameriques- St Laurent and Rachel street.***

If you can’t be there in person, tune into CKUT 90.3FM or www.ckut.ca. CKUT will broadcast live from the event from 6-7pm. You can find the podcast here after.

Please contact us for more information and promotional material.

With guests:

-Buffalo Hat Singers
-Warrior Minded (Joey Shaw)
-Ellen Gabriel
-Anik Sioui
-Nina Sigalwoitz, Chez Doris
-Alexa Conradi, Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ)
-Bridget Tolley, Families of Sisters in Spirit
-Lucy Anacleto, YWCA
-Mirha-Soleil, ASTTeQ
-Idle No More

and more….!

There will be hot chocolate served!

Thank you,
Missing Justice
justiceformissing@gmail.com
514-937-2110

Photos: 7th Annual Sisters in Spirit Memorial March & Vigil for Missing and Murdered Native Women

admin — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:06:18 +0000

Photos below by Thien Vo. Full set: here

Photos below by Vincent Meurin. Full set: here

Photos below by Spencer Mann. Full set: here

Photos–Defending the Land: Indigenous Women resisting the Plan Nord and Violence in Their Communities

admin — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 21:16:47 +0000

Friday September 28th, 2012

Presented by Missing Justice in collaboration with Regroupement de solidarité avec les Autochtones, Alliance Romaine, PASC and the Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective.

Guests: Elyse Vollant, Denise Jourdain & Ellen Gabriel

Photos by Michael Paolucci of The McGill Daily.

Missing Justice and the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy invite you to come out and show your support in Montreal this October 4th at the 7th Annual Sisters in Spirit Memorial March and Vigil

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 04:01:25 +0000

When? Thursday, October 4th, 6pm

Where? Parc Emilie Gamelin, corner of Berri and St. Catherine. Metro Berri.

Bridget Tolley founded the March and Vigil in 2005, which happens every year on the anniversary of her mother’s Gladys Tolley’s death. Since then, the march has been organized all across the country on that day. In 2010, 86 marches were held in communities across Canada, the largest number yet, with one march being held as far away as Nicaragua, showing us that the problem of Indigenous women being disproportionately affected by violence is one of colonized Nations worldwide.

–Invited guests: TBA–

The purpose of this event is to honour the memories of missing and murdered women and girls, raise awareness, and demand that the government support the actions of families and communities and restore research funding to Sisters in Spirit (SIS), an initiative of the Native Women’s Association of Canada which was responsible for conducting groundbreaking research between 2004 and 2010 on the now known-of cases. Although their work is far from finished, the government insists that action must take the place of research, and instead of funding the research, community work, and actions of SIS, are instead diverting resources to a generic RCMP-led missing persons database, as well as vastly facilitating police power to obtain warrants and to install wiretaps. Many believe that both of these police privileges will be used to further allow the government of Canada’s criminalization of Native communities rather than increasing the safety of Native women.

The United Nations have been deliberating the carrying out of an investigation into Canada’s human rights abuses vis-a-vis this issue since last year but require the government’s participation to do so, something that is not forthcoming.

Approximately 600 Native women have gone missing or have been murdered since roughly 1980 according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. Other organizations and activists suspect that the actual number is as high as 3000. The reality is that Native women in Canada are at least five times more likely to die of violence than non-Native women. Racist and sexist government policies, stereotypes of Indigenous women, a lack of media attention, and police negligence all contribute to, and indeed perpetuate this violence as well as the general lack of data–also a form of violence in itself.

While some media and public attention has been given to cases in Western Canada, Native women in Quebec have also been targeted. For instance, Gladys Tolley, in 2001, an Algonquin woman from Kitigan Zibi Anishnabeg was hit and killed by a Sûreté du Québec car. No one was ever held accountable, and all requests for independent investigations have been denied.

In June 2010 the remains of Tiffany Morrison, a young Mohawk woman from Kahnawake, were found very close to home, under the Mercier bridge. She had been missing for 4 years.

In September 2008 teenage friends Maisy Odjick from Kitigan Zibi and Shannon Alexander from Maniwaki went missing. Their whereabouts remain unknown to this day. The family has received very little information from police, and has had to organize their own search parties.

We will be gathering at 6 pm Parc Emilie Gamelin (metro Berri).

We hope you will join us on October 4th.

Contact organizers by sending an email to justiceformissing@gmail.com or campaigns@centre2110.org.

Also feel free to drop us a line at the Centre for Gender Advocacy: 514-937-2110.

If you would like promotional materials for this event to give out to friends or co-workers, or would like to help promote this event in other ways, please write to promotions@centre2110.org, or call the number above.

ANTI-COLONIAL FORUM AGAINST THE PLAN NORD For sharing strategies of resistance to the Plan Nord and colonization; Saturday the 29th of September**, 10 am-5 pm on the 7th floor of Hall, at Concordia University, 1455 boulevard de Maisonneuve West

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 03:49:15 +0000

The event will take place in two stages: a panel on Friday evening with indigenous women involved in resistance to colonialism, followed by an open forum on Saturday for sharing our strategies, with workshops and spaces for discussion. **If you already have a workshop you would like to present on Saturday, you will be able to propose it during the open forum. **The forum will serve to verbalize our paths of sharing and discussion, on an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial basis. * Since the beginning of 2012 a new plan for the colonization of the North American territory has been initiated: the Plan Nord. The political and capitalist class are attempting to sell a fantasy discourse, describing untouched territories that are ready to be developed, new frontiers to be expanded, and a quasi-mysterious space to be modeled to meet our desires. This is how they prepare for the cultural and environmental destruction of the peoples of the North. Throughout this same year, there were numerous acts of resistance by indigenous people against the Plan Nord and its specific projects, including foresty, hydroelectric dams, and mining. People are speaking up against the Plan Nord, among the Innu, the Algonquins, the Crees, and also the Atikamekw. As well, many events took place in the cities of the south, such as during the Salon du Plan Nord in Montreal, where there were moments of intense confrontation. The current motor of colonialism is called profit, and its principal movement is toward the concentration of wealth. Its motive is to dispossess the resources of the land, for investment in the tools of this dispossession: the state and the private-sector. In this way, the emergence of resistance to Plan Nord within the student movement was inevitable. To resist a project for the liberalization of the economy, it is necessary to talk about how we’re relating to the land and the people who live on it. We invite you to share your knowledge and your experiences, to build links that will allow us to better understand our strengths and weaknesses. We invite you to come share your resistance.

Defending the Land: Indigenous Women resisting the Plan Nord and Violence in Their Communities: Friday September 28th, 2012 from 6:30- 8:30pm; Concordia University, SGW, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, H-110

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 05:21:25 +0000

Please Join Us for an Upcoming Panel Discussion on Friday September 28th, 2012 from 6:30- 8:30pm; Concordia University, SGW, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, H-110

Details Below

Innu women speak out about the Plan Nord and violence against their communities. Activists will discuss their opposition to the massive industrial development plan being imposed on them by the government. They will speak about the impacts of the new infrastructure development north of the 49th parallel and its devastating cultural and environmental implications.

Event will be in French with simultaneous translation to English. Événement aura lieu en français avec traduction simultanée en anglais. Wheelchair accessible, and childcare available with 48 hours notice. Presented by the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy’s Missing Justice campaign (Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) in collaboration with Regroupement de solidarité avec les Autochtones, Alliance Romaine, PASC and the Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective.

With guest speakers Denise Jourdain, Élise Vollant & Ellen Gabriel:

Élyse Vollant is an Innushkueu from the North Shore community of Uashat mak Maliotenam. She is a mother of eight and grandmother of two. Elise is against the Plan Nord for future generations and has fought against it as one of the women who walked from Uashat mak Maliotenam to Montréal for Earth Day. She was also one of twelve women who were imprisoned following the blockade of route 138 in March 2012.

Denise Jourdain is a member of the Innu community of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, on the north shore of the St.Laurence River. She presently teaches the Innu language to students at Johnny Pilot primary school. Denise is a direct descendent of the Vachon and Jourdain families who fought to keep their territorial rights in the 1950′s, having defied municipal, governmental and ecclesiastical authorities. She too was imprisoned for having defended her people’s territorial rights in March 2012 during the blockade of route 138.

Ellen Gabriel was well-known to the public when she was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson during the 1990 “Oka” Crisis. For the past 22 years she has been a human rights advocate for the collective and individual rights of Indigenous peoples. In 2004, Ellen Gabriel was elected president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association a position which she held until December 2010. She believes that decolonization will be achieved by implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples with the full and effective participation of Indigenous peoples. She is an advocate for gender equity, the revitalization of Indigenous languages, culture, traditions and Indigenous governing structures.

Systemic Violence Against Indigenous Women

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 06:53:34 +0000

TUESDAY MARCH 13TH, 6:30 PM

Concordia University, H-763, Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve

Closing Panel of Israeli Apartheid Week (iawmontreal.org):

Systemic Violence Against Indigenous Women

Featuring presentations by indigenous activists Sheri Pranteau and Bridget Tolley and Palestinian activist Yafa Jarrar.

Speakers will discuss systemic violence experienced by indigenous women in Canada, and the struggles faced by women in Palestine on a daily basis. This panel comes on the heels of the call for a UN inquiry into Canada’s human rights abuses with regards to Indigenous women. This event is hosted by the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy at Concordia University.

Sheri Pranteau is a First Nations woman of Saulteaux decent from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is a 33-year-old mother-to-be who is serving out a life sentence for involuntary manslaughter and armed robbery-use of a firearm. She was convicted and sentenced in Winnipeg in 1999, served 13 years of her sentence in prison, and will have served another 2 years of it in a halfway house for women, here in Montreal, come May. Sheri will be serving her sentence for the rest of her life, and can share with you from her perspective the what’s what of the Canadian prison system today, the changes she’s experienced over the years with respect to “rehabilitation,” and the degradation of “creating choices.”

Bridget Tolley is Algonquin from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec. Bridget’s journey for justice began in October 2001 after her mother Gladys Tolley was struck and killed by a Quebec provincial police cruiser. In the past decade she has been advocating for and organizing with families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and communities affected by police violence. In January 2011 she co-founded Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS) a grassroots voluntary non-profit organization based in Ottawa on Algonquin territory, led by and for families of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

Yafa Jarrar is an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid-Carleton University. She was born in Jerusalem/Palestine and moved to Canada in 2003. Yafa now lives in Ottawa.

Panel facilitated by Bianca Mugyenyi, a coordinator at the 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy who participated in the World Education Forum in Occupied Palestine, Oct. 2010.

Check out these other IAW events that are part of the same week-long series: http://www.facebook.com/events/141089889344442/

More info: 514-937-2110 // campaigns@centre2110.org // promotions@centre2110.org