Women's Memorial Marches Honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Thousands of people participated in the 32nd Women's Memorial March in Vancouver on February 14 organized by the friends and families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver. The march was joined by the families of women from other parts of BC and from across the country. The march honours the lives of those murdered or missing and demands justice and an end to state-organized violence against Indigenous Peoples. The march wended its way through the streets of the Downtown Eastside stopping in many locations where women had last been seen or had been found murdered.

Marches took place in a number of other cities and towns across the country, including Victoria, Terrace, Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Toronto and Montreal.

The staggering number of women and girls who have gone missing and been murdered just since the marches began -- 970 in this area alone as of 2019 and many more than 4,000 across the country -- is a damning indictment of the refusal of the federal government and authorities at all levels to take action.

This refusal stems from the genocidal aims that have imbued the official colonial policy towards Indigenous Peoples since the creation of Canada, in which Indigenous women in particular are considered easy prey. The Canadian people demand that action be taken to end these crimes and Canada must redress them and uphold nation-to-nation relations with the Indigenous Peoples.