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National Post: Apr 5, 2018 Lori Culbert "Tragic tales, but hope for the future at the inquiry into MMIWG"
clip: https://lisamarieyoung.ca/n/np20180405
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Tragic tales, but hope for the future at the inquiry into MMIWG
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 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.
Activists and family members from B.C. fought for years for this national inquiry, which began in September 2016 but has been criticized for delays and lack of communication with the families, and hampered by high-profile resignations.
The commissioners are to submit a final report by December. They've recently asked for a two-year extension so they can hold more hearings, but the federal government has not yet responded.
The people who have spoken so far this week have walked a common road of violence, racism and despair, but have all asked the commissioners to lobby for change so the path leads to hope for future generations. Here we share the stories of four families with diverse stories that are bound together by resilience and strength.
The Missing
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.
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.
Martin, a former chief of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in Tofino, speaks slowly and softly about 21-year-old Lisa Marie Young, who vanished from a Nanaimo house party in June 2002.
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 Michèle Audette and added: "I have hope, commissioner, for the work you are doing. I have hope."
