The families of two Indigenous women killed in Halifax will share their stories with the inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Membertou, N.S. on Monday.
Loretta Saunders‘ parents and other family members will be the first to share their story as the inquiry starts in Nova Scotia. Saunders, an Inuk woman, was killed in Halifax in February 2014. Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry both pleaded guilty to her murder.
READ: MMIWG inquiry to hold hearings at Membertou First Nation this week
Delilah Saunders, Miram Saunders, Clayton Saunders, and Audrey Saunders will all speak publicly about their story.
Michèle Audette and Qajaq Robinson, two of the inquiry’s commissioners are in the Membertou First Nation for the three-day hearing. This is the inquiry’s first time on the east cost. Robinson says more locations will be announced but there are no details yet on where or when.
WATCH: MMIW Inquiry in Membertou, N.S. preview
The sister of Tanya Brooks will also speak to the inquiry. Brooks was murdered in Halifax in 2009 and her case remains unsolved.
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Two survivors of violence — Monique Fong-Howe and Rebecca Moore — will also tell their stories to the inquiry. In total, the inquiry is expecting to hear the testimony of approximately 40 families in private and public hearings over the next three days.
Some of their stories are well known in Canada, but Robinson told Global News that retelling their stories to the inquiry is “important” because they will then become “part of this country’s official record.”
Robinson said the inquiry is also an opportunity for people who have suffered in silence to be acknowledged.
“They’re not stories, it’s not fiction. This is their truth, this is their lives,” she said.
The hearing in Membertou comes in the same week the inquiry’s interim report will be released in Ottawa. Robinson says the inquiry will be asking for an extension on its timeline but wouldn’t comment further on the topic.
Indigenous women and girls over represented among missing and murdered: RCMP
The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women was brought into sharp focus in 2014. The RCMP released a report showing that Indigenous women and girls are over represented among missing and murdered people.
READ: Manitoba families upset with ‘rushed’ MMIWG inquiry hearings
The report found that there were 1,181 missing and murdered Indigenous women. Of those, 1,017 were murdered between 1980 and 2012, and 164 women were missing as of 2013.
As a proportion of the population, the report showed that Indigenous women were approximately three times more likely to go missing and four times more likely to be murdered than other women in Canada.
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