One night in Hinton, Alta., 16-year-old Shelley-Anne Bacsu decided to walk home on Highway 16 from her boyfriend’s house.
It was never again heard from her.
But 40 years later, her story is part of a new project that aims to honor the thousands of indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or disappeared in Canada: a “cover story” newspaper, which organizers plan to personally deliver. to the Prime Minister. Justin Trudeau.
On Monday, the day before the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, those walking in front of the Ontario legislature in Queen’s Park in Toronto came face to face with these women.
More than 100 “disappeared” posters posted in front of the building featured those whose stories are rarely amplified.
In the middle of the posters is a kiosk with the “4,000 Cover Stories” newspaper compiled by the Toronto Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NWRCT).
“It’s really to show the impact of how many women have disappeared that we know of,” Pamela Hart, executive director of the NWRCT, told CTVNews.ca. “So instead of a small 40-page newspaper section, you have a 2,000 (page) double-sided newspaper with cover stories of missing and murdered indigenous women.”
He said the newspaper’s massive size was to show “how big a newspaper would be if you covered all these stories with the amount of attention they deserve.”
Each of these women’s disappearances could be a cover-up, he said.
The project aims to stimulate action to protect indigenous women and girls in Canada. A national investigation conducted between 2015 and 2019 called the problem “genocide” and found that governments and law enforcement have often failed to collect adequate data or follow up on cases of missing indigenous women.
More than 1,000 indigenous women and girls were killed or disappeared between 1980 and 2012, according to the RCMP, but experts believe the real number is closer to 4,000, according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC).
And this violence continues: Between 2015 and 2020, the most recent year for these data, Indigenous women accounted for 24 percent of all female homicide victims in Canada. NWAC reportsdespite representing only five percent of the female population nationally.
Advocates say little has been done to address this crisis in the three years since the final report of the national investigation was released, something the NWRCT hopes this project will challenge.
Each page and story within the newspaper will be accompanied by a QR code which, when scanned, will draft a letter to the local riding MP specific to that missing or murdered woman, calling for action.
“My hope is that people will learn and go ahead with the letter … so that we are criticizing MPs and Trudeau with letters that force us to remember that this problem has never gone away,” Hart said.
“The other (goal) is that we honor and show that these women existed and that they deserved a cover and that they deserve to be talked about, and that there should be outrage, there should be more storytelling, there should have been more coverage.”
Following the demonstration in Queen’s Park, the paper will be part of the activities on Tuesday, which is the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
He will be present at the annual Sisters in Spirit Vigil at Allan Gardens in Toronto, where members of the community come together to honor those who are no longer with them and celebrate their lives, Hart explained.
Later, organizers plan to deliver the paper to Trudeau’s doorstep in Ottawa.
“So everyone knows it’s been done and he has one of the highest levels of responsibility to respond,” Hart said.
A COVER STORY
The front page of the giant newspaper declares: “The stories of Canada’s indigenous genocide will no longer go unwritten.” As readers flip through the pages, they will see huge photos of the women and girls in question, each formatted like a newspaper front page with headlines and dates, and details about their lives and disappearances.
Incomplete data, coupled with racism and negligence by police forces, mean the exact number of missing or murdered indigenous women is not fully known, the national investigation revealed.
“We know there’s a lot more to tell, we know there’s still a lot more going on, and we know there’s still a lot more that’s probably been hidden along the way,” Hart said.
“And if you think about the reality that MMIWG actually comes out of first contact, we’re actually looking at a number that I don’t think anyone can comprehend or even define. And so, through contact, colonization, residential schools and modern systems, we continue to harm indigenous women.”
This is recognized in the project itself: a page inside the newspaper shows only an illustration of a red dress, next to the words “Stolen sister”.
“On this page we honor one of our many stolen sisters,” the page says. “Indigenous Women and Girls face a homicide rate 12 times higher than any other woman in this country.”
Hart said the idea for the paper came from a desire not only to raise awareness, but also to show how the media doesn’t pay enough attention to these stories.
“We are not creating the space to honor these women who are unfortunately being stolen from us and often in horrible ways,” she said.
To compile the stories, project volunteers sorted through data from the National Inquiry into the MMIWG, which began in 2015 and released its final report in 2019.
They also included more recent disappearances that were happening even as they were putting the project together.
The stories unearthed during the investigation, many of which are now repeated in the 4000 Cover Stories project, come from the direct testimony of nearly 1,500 people, including 468 family members and survivors.
“Obviously reading some of the details and reflecting on it, reflecting on scenarios that directly impact my family, it’s very, very sad. It’s very heartbreaking,” Hart said.
Her family believes her aunt was murdered, she said, and that the investigation was mishandled.
Although it is painful to reflect on these stories, she also felt a determination to raise awareness and lift up those voices that have been silenced.
“I am very fortunate to work in a space that is so dedicated to reminding women of their sacred power,” she said. “And that helps balance some of the less easy-to-manage emotions and turn it around to do something positive.”
The piecemeal nature of media reporting on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls means that the project had to focus on brief details about each case, rather than being able to provide the deep framework that is missing from the way the media covers these cases. stories, Hart admitted.
“For this project, it’s more of a point of impact and awareness building,” he said. “This is starting the conversation of ‘how do we capture indigenous stories?’ This newspaper is not an example of (the ideal framework), but I hope it will be a catalyst for how we start that conversation.”
CALL TO REAL ACTION
Delivering the newspaper to the door of Trudeau’s residence on the National Day of Action for MMIWG will hopefully send a message, Hart said.
“It’s one thing to continue the investigation … as a government,” he said. “But again, there has to be ongoing conversation, ongoing action. And I think, unfortunately, Trudeau often has enough words to say and not enough action. And as we continue to lose women from the community, we need faster action, because it is a matter of life and death.
“The hope is that when I show up at the door, they can’t ignore me.”
The final report of the National Inquiry into the MMIWG included 231 calls to justicethat establishes recommendations on how to stop the advance of this crisis.
But this June, advocates noted that the deaths are still continuing, and the NWAC also argued that little has been done to address the calls for justice.
The government published a National Action Plan in 2021, earmarking $2.2 billion over five years to address the MMIWG. At the time, NWAC called it “a recipe for inaction.” In the past year, the government says it has supported more than 410 indigenous language and culture projects by indigenous groups and that 19 indigenous organizations have received money for projects and services that support healing for families and survivors, but it acknowledged there is still work to be done. to finish
“I think there needs to be more transparency and more communication about calls for justice,” Hart said. “I think there needs to be stronger action around the responsibilities of all systems and all levels of government to enact and react to calls for justice.”
He noted that there are immediate steps that could be taken to create positions and staff to address these issues more urgently and to “create indigenous-led efforts and tables.”
“It has to be this profound change within our systems that really gives dignity respect to the humanity of indigenous women, because when you break it down, we are talking about the humanity of our existence, which has been ignored since contact. ”
It has been 39 years since Shelley-Anne Bacsu disappeared while walking home. Her page on the 4,000 Cover Stories project emphasizes that her “personality was larger than life,” that she “lit up every room she walked into.”
His family still wants answers. Answers that the families of the other missing and murdered indigenous women and girls are also waiting for.
“Each one of them matters equally,” Hart said. “And none of them seem to be talked about unless it’s among our own families or our own community. And we keep doing that, we keep the spirit alive, that’s why our culture is so rich and so strong. But if we don’t continue this conversation on a larger scale, we will continue to lose our women and girls.”