‘We need to wake up’: Nova Scotia front-line workers on MMIW inquiry

The official launch of the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls brings many people hope for answers, including those living in Nova Scotia.

“I just want to pray for the families that they get the answers they deserve,” Denise One-Breath Mitchell said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I just want to pray for the families that they get the answers they deserve," Denise One-Breath Mitchell said.

One-Breath Mitchell, a victim support navigator at the Mi’kmaq Native Friendship Centre, is a front line support worker for the urban indigenous community.

She says she was devastated when the Harper government refused to launch a national investigation into the hundreds of cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada.

The rejection from the previous federal government came after the RCMP released a report in 2014, identifying 1,181 police-recorded incidents of indigenous female homicides and unsolved cases of missing indigenous females.

One of those murdered woman was Tanya Brooks of Millbrook First Nation.

She was 36 years old when her body was found in a window well at St. Patrick’s Alexandra school in Halifax.

“She had five children, she was a beautiful woman, a beautiful artist,” One-Breath Mitchell said.

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The murder happened in July 2009 and remains unsolved — no arrests have been made, no answers given to the family.

“She was a mother, and a daughter, a sister, a community member that was murdered here in the city,” One-Breath Mitchell said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "She was a mother, and a daughter, a sister, a community member that was murdered here in the city," One-Breath Mitchell said.

“When I heard the previous government refuse the inquiry, it really hurt, I hurt for the families. I don’t have a loved one that was murdered or missing, but to hear that government say that ‘their loved ones don’t matter,’ it really broke my heart,” One-Breath Mitchell said.

A new 2016 report from the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) estimates the number of missing and murdered indigenous women to be significantly higher.

Other indigenous community members in the province have high hopes for the outcome of this inquiry, saying it highlights ways to better support vulnerable women in the community.

“I think attitudes need to change and I think that we need to look at the real issue and not turn a blind eye to our women that are living on the streets also that are in high-risk situations,” said Audrey Marshall, a senior consultant with the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association.