‘It happens here on P.E.I.’: Charlottetown rally shines light on missing and murdered Indigenous people
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Greater than 40 individuals gathered exterior Province Home on Sept. 18 for a rally that aimed to boost consciousness on the difficulty of lacking and murdered Indigenous girls, ladies, and two-spirit individuals (MMIWG2S+).
Sarah Jackson, the MMIWG2S+ program coordinator on the Native Council of P.E.I., organized the occasion.
Jackson stated Sept. 18 has been declared the Worldwide Day of Motion to Search the Landfills by MMIWG2S+ households and advocates nationwide.
The council held the rally to not solely stand in solidarity with the affected households, Jackson stated, but additionally to attract consideration to the issue proper right here in P.E.I., particularly in mild of the disappearance of Summer time Kneebone, who was reported lacking greater than a month in the past.
Final week, Charlottetown police reported the invention of stays believed to belong to the 27-year-old girl.
“Summer time Kneebone, God relaxation her soul, she was simply discovered. Her household is coping with this. It occurs right here on P.E.I.,” Jackson advised SaltWire in the course of the rally.
Rising calls
Folks on the rally on Sept. 18 lent their voices to the rising name throughout the nation calling for a search of a Winnipeg-area landfill within the hopes of discovering the stays of two murder victims.
Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran are two of 4 girls believed to have been killed by the identical Winnipeg man. Police consider the stays of Harris and Myran had been taken to the Prairie Inexperienced landfill, north of Winnipeg.
Nevertheless, earlier this summer time, Manitoba’s provincial authorities refused to support a search of Prairie Inexperienced landfill, citing security causes.
Since then, requires the search have been spreading in Manitoba and all throughout Canada.
“No one deserves to be left within the landfill. These households should not should be coping with that. And that is a part of the explanation why we’re standing in solidarity with all these households,” Jackson stated.
A private concern
The rally kicked off in entrance of the Charlottetown cenotaph with drumming and singing by Patrick Augustine and his spouse, Margaret.
Patrick, who’s assistant professor at UPEI’s Indigenous school, stated he wished to affix the rally as a result of MMIWG2S+ is a deeply private concern for him.
His cousin, Gladys Simon, who was a member of Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick, went lacking in 2004. Eight years later, partial human stays had been discovered and believed to be of Simon. Foul play was dominated out by New Brunswick RCMP.
“The case was by no means solved,” Margaret stated. “It isn’t only a nationwide concern. It is private.”
Matilda Ramjattan, who’s president of the Aboriginal Ladies’s Affiliation of P.E.I. and a member of the Lennox Island band, additionally feels a private connection to the difficulty.
She stated simply two years in the past, all band members went looking for Jamie Sark, whose physique was ultimately present in November 2021 in a densely wooded space on Lennox Island.
“That is all nonetheless contemporary and uncooked in our neighborhood, . When it occurs to at least one, it impacts many,” Ramjattan stated.
Laws
On Sept. 9, P.E.I.’s Lacking Individuals Act lastly got here into impact, granting police providers better powers to entry essential knowledge in lacking individuals circumstances, though the legislation was handed two years in the past.
Ramjattan stated the act ought to’ve been carried out sooner.
“It might have occurred earlier and will have saved a number of heartache and hope. You do not need to lose hope if you’re in that sort of state of affairs,” she stated.
Jackson agrees it mustn’t have taken two years for the act to return into impact.
“That’s so disheartening,” she stated. “Why would it not be shelved? That would assist so many individuals, not simply Indigenous girls, however anyone.”
In an e mail assertion, the P.E.I. Division of Justice and Public Security stated the act couldn’t be proclaimed till Aug. 1 of this 12 months resulting from sure features associated to the laws taking longer than anticipated.
“The Lacking Individuals Act couldn’t be proclaimed till the Judicial Justice of Peace (JJP) framework was enacted by way of the magistrate Act and JJPs had been appointed – which took longer than anticipated,” the assertion reads.
“These appointments took impact on Aug. 1, 2023 – the identical date the magistrate Act got here into pressure. The Senior Judicial magistrate and part-time JJPs have been performing the capabilities and duties set out beneath the magistrate Act since Aug. 1, 2023, which in fact now embody capabilities outlined within the Lacking Individuals Act.”
Thinh Nguyen is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He may be reached by e mail at [email protected] and adopted on X @thinhnguyen4291.
