Justice Will Prevail

The walk was borne out of her deeply committed activism concerning “The Highway of Tears” www.highwayoftears.ca, a lonely stretch of 720 kilometers between Prince Rupert and Prince George. It is called “The Highway of Tears” because women have gone missing and were murdered along this highway. The vast majority of the women were of First Nations ancestry. The RCMP has documented 18 murdered and missing women. Gladys fears the RCMP’s count is far too conservative. She estimates at least 44 women have gone missing, and most are presumed murdered. Gladys’ own niece is listed in this tragic count.

The Walk4Justice ground zero starts in Victoria, B.C. Its next stop is Vancouver where its send-off site will be Trout Lake. Walkers leave Vancouver on Saturday, June 21st to coincide with National Aboriginal Day. There are 19 scheduled stops along the way. Gladys’ vision is for the walk to be much like a “justice baton” which will be passed from community to community in the hopes that communities will raise awareness and funds for the next leg of the walk. The final steps of the journey end in Ottawa on Monday, September 15 to coincide with the opening of Parliament.

Gladys wants politicians and national aboriginal leaders to remember the missing and murdered women. National leaders must acknowledge that these women were loved by their families and by their communities. These families and communities have been left on their own to grieve with little or no community resources to help them heal from their losses. Politicians and First Nations leaders must be held accountable for upholding policies which sanctions violence against First Nations women.