Ms. Saunders’ Large Vigil to be organized in Ottawa

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The Inuk university student investigating missing and murdered aboriginal women, Loretta Saunders, was killed on the same day when a native women tabled a petition to Parliament demanding a national inquiry into the issue. The timing of the petition, which was signed by more than 23,000 Canadians, and Saunders’ death has moved the native leader in Nova Scotia, Cheryl Maloney.

The president of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association, Ms. Maloney, announced to organize a vigil on Parliament Hill at noon on March 5 to honour Ms. Saunders and other missing and murdered indigenous women. Ms. Saunders’s younger sister, Delilah Saunders-Terriak, also made a formal request to all their supporters and well-wishers to organize vigils across the country this month, and revealed to have been receiving offers of help. Ms. Maloney alleged that she is not sure of how many people will show up, or how the vigil on Parliament Hill will be structured but she simply feels “something big has to be done.”

Even though the demand to carry out an investigation into missing native people has been ignored so far, Ms. Maloney alleged that she hopes Ms. Saunders’s story will shine more light on the issue and so will many other people across the country. Ms. Maloney stated that “she broke the stereotype of what people can accept as missing and murdered aboriginal women.” It was added that “it’s easy for people to say ‘okay, they were on drugs. It’s okay, they were a sex trade worker.’ That’s not the whole story of who is going missing and murdered.”