Vs20180405: Difference between revisions

<span class='vs logo'></span> Vancouver Sun: Apr 5, 2018 Lori Culbert ''"Tragic tales, but hope for the future at the inquiry into MMIWG"'' {{DISPLAYTITLE:Vancouver Sun - April 5, 2018}}

source: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/tragic-tales-but-hope-for-the-future-at-the-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women

 

clip: https://lisamarieyoung.ca/n/vs20180405

The largest and possibly the last community hearings for the national inquiry are underway in Vancouver. The stories being shared are both heartbreaking and hope-inspiring. Meet four of these families, who have travelled a common road but have very different experiences to share.

Eagle feathers provide strength, symbolic quilts adorn the walls and a sacred fire burns in the courtyard of a Richmond hotel, where the largest — and possibly the last — community hearing is underway by the national inquiry into [[wikipedia:MMIWG|missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls]].

More than 100 people registered to speak over five days this week, making it the biggest of the dozen community hearings the commission has held across Canada in the past year. The response in this province is not surprising, given the disproportionately high number missing women from B.C., the notorious Robert (Willie) Pickton serial murder case, and the mainly unsolved murders and disappearances along the Highway of Tears.

 

 

There is no sign of her being there, Carol's sister, Lori Davis, said emotionally.

 

Lori Davis has fought for three decades to ensure her sister, whose 1987 murder is unsolved, will never be invisible: She asked the First Nations Summit 25 years ago, when she worked there, to push for this type of an inquiry; she keeps in touch with the RCMP for any updates on the cold case; and she routinely Tweets out Carol's photo with the phrase I speak her name."

 

 

The girls were born to a troubled mother of eight children. Lori was raised by her grandparents, and didn't live with her younger sister Carol until age 15 when she moved to Vancouver to be with her mother and her new husband. He was a white man, Lori said, who was abusive and picked on the sisters for their dark skin.

 

Carol felt so bad about the colour of her skin she would bathe in bleach so her skin could get fairer, so we wouldn't be made fun of by him, said Davis, who paused several times during her story to weep. "She had a really hard time."

 

The grandparents took Lori back to Haida Gwaii, but Carol's life spiralled downward as she masked her pain with drugs, ran away from her foster home, and as a teenager had a baby boy, B.J., born with cerebral palsy. Lori raised B.J., but said Carol was a loving mother who visited often and lavished him with gifts and special outings — whenever she could save a bit of money while working the streets of the Downtown Eastside.

 

 

 

No arrest has been made, but that doesn't mean her family has stopped hoping — for answers in Carol's case, and for a future with less violence against Indigenous women and girls.

 

I'm here because we have young children coming up and they need to be safe, Lori told the commission.

 

The small photo in Moses Martin's wallet is peeling and scratched by time, but will never be replaced as it was the last one given to him by his granddaughter before she disappeared 16 years ago.

The pain and the memories that this brings back — but I know it's important for us to talk about it so that hopefully our grandkids don't have to experience the same things, he said.

Like any grandchild, she was beautiful. She was strong. She was young. And somebody took her life.

Martin urged the commissioners to recommend police get special Indigenous training. Lisa Marie was driven to the house party by a man in a Jaguar, but Martin said RCMP have not made an arrest and have not provided the family with regular updates. He also told the commission that police did not begin searching for Lisa Marie until she had been missing for two months, leaving the job for 30 relatives and friends to do on their own.

The justice system doesn't seem to exist, at least in our view.

To add to his grief, Lisa Marie's mother, Joanne Young, died last year, never learning what happened to her daughter. Joanne had organized an annual walk in Nanaimo in Lisa Marie's honour, something that Martin and wife Carla Moss will continue.

It's sad for us, the survivors, Martin said.

After a long pause, he looked at Commissioner Mich&egrave;le Audette and added: "I have hope, commissioner, for the work you are doing. I have hope."

The Survivor

They automatically deemed her to be a bad parent because she was Indigenous. And I became another Sixties Scoop statistic, she said, dabbing away tears

I asked myself the same question a million times: What does it mean to be an Indian?

In heartbreaking testimony, Guerin revealed tragic life events that led to her being homeless on the streets, raped multiple times, and bounced between foster homes — when she was 15 the government advertised for a new foster family for her, saying she was so independent "absolutely no parenting (was) required."

The foster care system failed to protect me. Worst, nothing has changed since I was a 14 years old living on the street, Guerin said.

My main message is: Our people can do a better job caring for our children than the current system, said Guerin, who urged children in care to stay strong and not give up.

The Pickton Horror

Their mother had nine children who were split up and raised in different foster homes. "We grew up as strangers," Fowler, the youngest sibling, told the inquiry.

I had always thought of my whole family being missing my whole life, Fowler said. "We didn't see each other on a regular basis, and this was normal for me."

I think about her children every day and how Georgina missed out on seeing her grandchildren, Cardinal said.

[image caption:] Moses Martin and his wife Carla Moss. Moses Martin is grandfather of Lisa Marie Young, last seen leaving a party in the early hours of June 30, 2002 in Nanaimo. Photo by Lori Culbert/PNG