Activists gather across Canada in honour of missing and murdered women

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Toronto – February 19, 2015 – UFCW Canada activists joined other community members across the country, to take part in the February 14th Annual Memorial Marches in honour of more than 1,200 missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada.

Thousands of participants assembled across Canada, standing in solidarity to demand a national inquiry into the hundreds of Aboriginal women who have been missing and murdered.  In Vancouver, UFCW Canada activists joined hundreds of other marchers on a route through Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where they stopped for moments of silence near locations where women have been murdered. Activists also stood shoulder to shoulder in gatherings in Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon and St John’s.

In Toronto, UFCW Canada activists joined with more than 500 other community members to pay homage and honour Aboriginal women in Canada who have been murdered or gone missing over the past years.  Amidst strawberries and water handed out to the many individuals who came to this event, were heartfelt speeches given by individuals who have lost family members due to violence. 

The message from all the gatherings was loud and clear: there needs to be a national inquiry that looks at the increasing prevalence of these murders and missing case files as more than just another incident or sociological mishap in society.  UFCW Canada proudly continues to stand in support of a national inquiry on violence faced by Aboriginal women in Canada. 

In a year where we are asking whether all political parties are Up for Debate regarding women’s issues, it is an appropriate time to raise the important issue of violence against women and demand that our federal government work with all jurisdictions, unions, and community organizations to stop the systemic cycle of violence that has taken the lives of well over a thousand Aboriginal Canadian women to date.