Walk4Justice Arrives in Toronto: Awareness about Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Walk4Justice (a 4,700-kilometre trek from Vancouver to Ottawa) Arrives in Toronto to Raise Awareness About Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.

(August 27, 2008) Hundreds of Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada over the last decades. These tragic deaths received little public attention
until Amnesty International took the unprecedented step of investigating a host
country, Canada. The organization linked the disproportionate levels of violence
experienced by Indigenous women to governmental polices and called the situation a
human rights tragedy. While the public is well aware of the horrors that were
committed at a Port Coquitlam Farm few know that one third of the women killed were
Indigenous. Recently, in one weekend in Toronto the Native community lost Carolyn
Connelly and Katelynn Sampson who was only 7 – both murdered.

The Walk4Justice publicly addresses the key issues faced by marginalized, missing,
and murdered Indigenous women and their families. They will present a petition to
Parliament Hill on September 15th and demand a national inquiry into these deaths
and disappearances.

The Walk4Justice is organized by Gladys Radek, whose niece Tamara Chipman went
missing on BC's Highway of Tears, and Bernie Williams, a front-line worker in
Vancouver's downtown eastside, where many Aboriginal women have gone missing or been
murdered. The Walkers left Vancouver on June 21st and arrive in Toronto on August
29th.

The media is welcome at the following public events, organized to welcome and honour
the Walk4Justice as they pass through Toronto:

Welcome Reception: Friday August 29th, First Nations House (563 Spadina Ave.)
A meal will be served and the walkers will address the public & the media beginning
at 6:30pm.

Public Send-Off: September 2nd, 9am at Allen Gardens (across from the Native Women's
Resource Centre, 191 Gerrard St.). The Walkers will be continuing on to Tyendinaga
on September 2nd, and arriving in Ottawa on September 12th. They will be on
Parliament Hill September 15th.

A full day of events has been planned at Six Nations, where the Walkers will be
welcomed by Bev Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada. They
will also visit the Six Nations Polytechnic, where a tree has been planted in memory
of Tashina General, murdered last Spring at the age of 21, and her unborn son,
Tucker.

For more information, please contact:

− Audrey Huntley, No More Silence Network Toronto: 416-508-8632
− Gladys Radek, Walk4Justice Organizer: 778-839-0072
− Norma General, Grandmother to Tashina General (Six Nations) 519-445-4238
− Bev Jacobs, President of the Native Women's Association of Canada: 613-878-6922