Dozens of people marched through downtown Winnipeg Wednesday night calling for justice for the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
They walked for aunts, daughters and mothers who have never come home. Many wore butterflies cut out of brightly coloured paper. On each butterfly there was a name of a missing or murdered woman.
“Everyone walking out here is walking for a person,” said Leticia Spence.
Bernice Catcheway, one of the organizers, walked holding a sign for her daughter Jennifer Catcheway. Her daughter has been missing for nearly 10 years. Bernice and her husband Wilfred have never stopped searching or given up hope.
“If we have no hope, we have nothing,” Catcheway said. “You know we have that faith and we have that hope and I believe with all my heart that we’re going to bring our Jennifer home.”
Organizers led the marchers to the court house where they paused for a prayer and called for justice.
“What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now,” the crowd chanted.
Organizer Alaya McIvor pointed out how inside a trial is currently underway for Raymond Cormier, the man accused of killing Tina Fontaine. Cormier has pleaded not guilty. The teen’s death spurred a movement across Canada calling for a national inquiry into missing in murdered Indigenous women and girls.
Ten years after the group’s first march, the inquiry is underway and continued this week in Moncton.
“I just want justice. That justice will come for Tina Fontaine,” Catcheway said.
