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The Walk4Justice Needs Your Support

By John Ahni Schertow

For updates on the 2011 Walk 4 Justice, please visit http://fnbc.info/walk4justice

Setting out on June 21, the “Walk4Justice” is now well on its way to Ottawa. That means there’s at least sixteen more stops before they reach Parliament Hill in September, where they will present a petition and demand a full public inquiry into the “scandal” of missing and murdered women in Canada.

Over the past 40 years, at least 3000 women have been murdered or reported missing. That’s roughly one woman for each kilometer the Walk4Justice will complete in its two month march.

To make sure they reach their destination, the Walk4Justice is going to need your help. Please see below for a full list of things you can do (following a press release from the Walk4Justice working group, and links providing more news and background.)

Walk4Justice 2008

Good day all my relations,

Our names are Bernie Williams, Gladys Radek and Rose Henry. We are the advocates for the missing and murdered women, all across Canada and also a Human Rights activist.

I am writing to invite you to a walk4justice in the works to address the Prime Minister, Steven Harper and Indian Affairs minister Chuck Strahl about our missing and murdered Aboriginal women, children and men.

We want to demand justice and closure for our people who have lost their loved ones over the past, at least 4 decades.

As you know, every single First Nations community is affected by this on going genocide by murder. Serial killers are targeting our women right across the country!

The police, judicial system and all levels of government are failing to protect us as citizens of Canada. We need to gather in unity to speak out for those who can not do so. We need to gather true numbers of exactly how many are missing, murdered, raped, beaten and overall violated by this system.

At this time Amnesty International is saying over 500 Aboriginal women are missing and murdered. The majority of them are still unsolved due to the seriously flawed judicial system, police forces and social acceptance of yet another ‘dead Indian’. We already know that the police forces were formed to control the ‘Indian problem’, upon the arrival of the Europeans.

Here it is 2008 and they are still trying to ‘rid society of the Indians’.

Mainstream society accepts this by ignoring our pleas for justice and closure. Many are not aware of what their government is doing and it is time for us to make them aware of what is going on.

An average Aboriginal woman has 5 children. Using Amnesty International figures, this means that we lose at least 2500 children for our future generation. At this time we are only 3% of Canada’s population. If we get the true numbers from the family members of these communities, it will point to an alarming rate for our population who are disappearing without any accountability for their demise.

We also want to address the children of these beautiful spirits who were taken. Do we want them to hold Canada’s legacy of ‘system racism’? No! We want them to be raised in a compassionate society. We want them to know that they are a part of this society and that they are our future leaders.

When a child loses one parent they lose half of their income throughout their lives, thus putting them at a risk of living in an already impoverished community. Many of these children were from single parent homes and many end up in the hands of government care after they lose there mothers or fathers. These children will grow up without justice, closure or accountability. They will grow up angry and wonder why nobody cared to look for their mothers or fathers. We want them to know that we, as a society, will seek this justice, closure and accountability for them. We want them to lead healthy lifestyles so that they can become our future leaders without the legacy of ‘systemic racism’ we are facing today.

We want to honor the women, men and children and the families of the ones who have disappeared over the last, at least, four decades. We want to speak out for them and the children who were left behind to fend for themselves.

Our demands will be very simple. We want justice, closure, equality and accountability!

Last, but not least, we want to raise funds for the children for their education. We want to guarantee the facilities for their future endeavors such as college, university, counseling, cultural awareness, treatment centers, health facilities and programs that are readily available for them to lead positive lifestyles.

If you are interested in supporting this walk for justice, could you please email to walk4justice2008@yahoo.ca (Vancouver)

What You Can Do To Help

c/o the Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

  • Make a monetary donation — All donations should be sent to the Aboriginal Mother’s Center Society in Vancouver, BC. Make your cheque payable to the Aboriginal Mother’s Center Society and mark “Walk4Justice” in the subject line on your cheque. An account has been set up through this Society. Cheques should be mailed to: #208 – 2019 Dundas Street, Vancouver, BC V5L 1J5.
  • Sign the Petition — Visit http://www.petitiononline.com/glradek/petition.html to sign this very important petition and then pass this link on to all of your contacts!
  • Organize an event in your town — This could be a fundraiser, a dinner for the walkers, a social event, a donation collection station or any other event you think will support this Walk.
  • Provide or arrange lodging for the walkers when they come through your town. This would mean scarce funds could go to support the Walk, and the walkers would have adequate and safe accommodation;
  • Donate much-needed items for the walkers – these don’t have to be big-ticket items, but a camper or utility trailer would really help. Rather than filling their support vehicles with supplies, they could use a utility trailer to hold their supplies. Smaller items will help, too — for example, food, cases of bottled water, oranges, medical supplies, socks and runners, sunscreen, mosquito protection or rain slickers can all be invaluable for the walkers to help keep them healthy on their journey.
  • Help the walkers stay healthy — Nurses or other healthcare workers could meet with the walkers at one of the stops or en route to ensure these women remain healthy.
  • Follow this link for a list of Walk4Justice tour locations from Vancouver to Ottawa:
    http://www.psacbc.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/walk4justice-1000-08rep-as-walk4justice-tour-locations.pdf
  • The Walk4Justice organizers need you to get in touch as soon as possible to:
    • Know who is joining the walkers from town to town so they can accommodate and feed people adequately;
    • Know if you will provide a support letter to ensure all arrangements are confirmed; and
    • Gather information about missing and murdered women in your communities so they can represent them accurately when they get to Ottawa.

They would like to hear from you, so please connect with the organizers or our Federation to let us know how you will support this important Walk4Justice on behalf of murdered and missing women in Canada. Contact: walk4justice2008@yahoo.ca, or call 604-253-5989.

We must let our federal and provincial governments know these women will not be forgotten. Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

In solidarity, ANGELA SCHIRA Secretary-Treasurer