Still Moving Forward

Senator Murray Sinclair said it on the final day of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "Education got us into this mess and education will get us out of it."

He passed away last November. His words are still moving forward without him.

This year's graduating class in BC is the first in provincial history required to complete Indigenous-focused coursework as a condition of earning their diploma. Not optional. Required. Every student walking across that stage this June has had to engage, in some structured and accountable way, with the truth of this land's history. That is not a small thing. It does not fix everything. But it is a different foundation than any graduating class before them has stood on.

My daughter Lauren is one of those graduates.

One of the assignments for her Grade 12 English First Peoples class required that she develop a podcast that brought attention to challenges that impact Indigenous communities. It took her only a moment to decide that she wanted to talk about MMIWG2S. When she finished the recording, I decided to send it to my shuyulh, George, to listen to, especially because she talks about his late Aunt, Dorothy. "Kimmy," he said. "You've gotta ask Lauren if we can share this as a TT." And with George's encouragement, she said yes.

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Listen Here 

Hi, I'm Lauren Trottier. I am a white settler with English, Irish, and Russian Mennonite roots on my mom's side, and French ancestry on my father's side. I'm joining you from my home, on the beautiful, unceded lands of the Snuneymuxw people. Welcome to the Strong Women podcast.

Today I want to talk about something that really matters to me. Not just because it's an assignment, but because I'm a girl. Because I've had moments where I've felt unsafe. And because I think everyone deserves to understand what's happening in our own backyard.

This episode is about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people: MMIWG2S. Before we get into the numbers, I want to say this clearly: these are not just statistics. They are real people. Daughters, mothers, sisters, friends. Women who deserved to come home.

To really understand this crisis, we need to go back before it started. Before European settlers came to this land, Indigenous women weren't on the margins of their communities. They were at the centre.

Scholar Cyndy Baskin writes that before colonization, Indigenous women were leaders. They were the ones who taught children, resolved conflicts, and helped heal their communities. Many nations were matriarchal, meaning women held significant power and authority. Some nations even had women chiefs (Baskin, 2020).

A Cree woman named Michelle Nieviadomy said it this way: "The Indigenous woman is the most vulnerable woman here in Canada, and yet through teachings she is also the most powerful one. Despite colonization and systems intended to eradicate her existence, her role, her leadership, her voice — she is still here" (Christian Reformed Church, 2023).

Colonization didn't just take land. It deliberately went after that power. The residential school system, the Indian Act, the imposition of European values — these weren't accidents. They were tools designed to break down Indigenous communities by pushing women out of their roles (Baskin, 2020).

That history is the root of what we're dealing with today.

So what does this look like now?

According to the Government of Canada, in 2022 the homicide rate for Indigenous women and girls was over six times higher than for non-Indigenous women. Six times. For the same crime. On the same land (Women and Gender Equality Canada, 2024).

Statistics Canada looked at data from 2011 to 2021 and found that Indigenous women and girls made up 21% of all gender-related homicides in Canada, even though they are only about 5% of the female population. One in five victims. When the math should be closer to one in twenty (Statistics Canada, 2023).

Here is the part that is hardest for me to sit with. When the victim is Indigenous, police lay first-degree murder charges, the most serious charge, only half as often as when the victim is non-Indigenous. The same crime. Half the accountability. Statistics Canada found this pattern held across more than a decade of data (Statistics Canada, 2023).

The Assembly of First Nations reports that Indigenous women make up about 16% of all female homicide victims in Canada, and 11% of missing women; again, while being just 4.3% of the population (Assembly of First Nations, n.d.).

This is not random. This is a pattern.

In 2019, Canada's National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report. Chief Commissioner Marion Buller said: "Despite their different circumstances and backgrounds, all of the missing and murdered are connected by economic, social and political marginalization, racism, and misogyny woven into the fabric of Canadian society. The hard truth is that we live in a country whose laws and institutions perpetuate violations of fundamental rights, amounting to a genocide against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people" (National Inquiry into MMIWG, 2019).

Genocide. That is the word the National Inquiry used. It is important that we don't soften it.

I live on Vancouver Island. And I want you to know, this is not a faraway problem. These women are from here.

Lisa Marie Young was 21 years old. She was Tla-o-qui-aht (Ta-low-kwee-it), and she grew up right here in Nanaimo. She loved rollerblading along the waterfront. She was vegetarian. Her mom described her as having "inner strength that was totally awesome." On the night of June 30, 2002, she went out with friends and accepted a ride from a man she had just met. She was never seen again. Her case has been treated as a homicide for over twenty years. No one has ever been charged. Her mom organized a walk in Lisa's memory every single year until she passed away in 2017. Friends and community have kept it going ever since. Last year, the City of Nanaimo dedicated a tree to Lisa's memory; because she was taken, and she deserves to be remembered (City of Nanaimo, 2024; Nanaimo News Bulletin, 2025).

Angeline Pete was 28 years old, a mother, and a member of the Quatsino First Nation. She disappeared from North Vancouver in May 2011. Her family searched everywhere. Her aunt Cary-Lee Calder has spoken publicly about the pain of not knowing: "Sometimes I think I could go crazy looking everywhere for her. I struggle at times to breathe because my niece isn't here. My niece, just like all Indigenous women and girls, has a right to live and thrive without fear, without danger" (Trottier, 2025). Angeline has never been found. In 2019, two women from the Comox Valley raised money by selling beaded red dress pins to put Angeline's face on a billboard on the Island Highway — because Indigenous families often can't afford the visibility that non-Indigenous families take for granted (CBC News, 2019).

Dee Dee Brown, her full name was Dolores, was 19 years old and from Penelakut Island, near Chemainus. On the night of July 27, 2015, she was at a beach with friends. She never made it home. Her body was found three weeks later off Norway Island. Police determined immediately that she had been murdered. No one has ever been charged. A Penelakut Elder named James Charlie, who had given Dee Dee a ride just days before she disappeared, said her murder changed his island forever. Her mother still lives with that loss every day, with no answers and no justice (CHEK News, 2020; 2022).

Dorothy Harris was from Stz'uminus First Nation. She was the aunt of George Harris Jr., a knowledge keeper and mentor in our local community. Dorothy was murdered in December 1993. She was laid to rest on the 20th of that month, just days before Christmas. George has shared that the adults in his family did their best to make sure Dorothy's four children were taken care of over the holidays, carrying their grief quietly alongside the weight of the season. No one was ever held accountable for her death (Trottier, 2025).

Four women. Four unsolved cases. Four families who are still waiting.

I started this episode by saying I understand, in a small way, what it feels like to be unsafe. But I want to be honest. My experience is not the same as what Indigenous women face. The difference isn't just about how scared someone feels in a moment. It's about a system, one that was built to undervalue certain lives, and has been doing so for a very long time.

Red Dress Day exists because Métis artist Jaime Black began hanging empty red dresses in public spaces to represent the women who are gone. Empty dresses. To make visible what has been made invisible.

I'm asking you to look. To say their names. To understand that this isn't a distant problem — it is here, in our community.

Lisa Marie Young. Angeline Pete. Dee Dee Brown. Dorothy Harris.

Say their names. Remember their faces. And keep asking, loudly, and for as long as it takes, why their cases remain unsolved.

References

Assembly of First Nations. (n.d.). Murdered & missing Indigenous women & girls. https://afn.ca/rights-justice/murdered-missing-indigenous-women-girls/

Baskin, C. (2020). Contemporary Indigenous women's roles: Traditional teachings or internalized colonialism? Violence Against Women, 26(15–16). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801219888024

CBC News. (2019, December 20). Campaign raises billboards for missing Indigenous women on Vancouver Island. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/billboards-vancouver-island-mmiw-1.5403738

CBC News. (n.d.). Missing & murdered: The unsolved cases of Indigenous women and girls — Angeline Eileen Pete. https://www.cbc.ca/missingandmurdered/mmiw/profiles/angeline-eileen-pete

CHEK News. (2020, August 20). Family of murdered Penelakut Island woman plead for clues in her cold case. https://cheknews.ca/murdered-penelakut-woman-cold-case-693292/

CHEK News. (2022, August 19). 'She's our loved one': Penelakut Island haunted by teenager Delores Brown's unsolved murder. https://cheknews.ca/shes-our-loved-one-penelakut-island-haunted-by-teenager-delores-browns-unsolved-murder-1078130/

Christian Reformed Church. (2023, June 7). Indigenous matriarchs. https://www.crcna.org/news-and-events/news/indigenous-matriarchs

City of Nanaimo. (2024, October 15). Tree dedication in memory of Lisa Marie Young and all MMIWG2S+. https://www.nanaimo.ca/NewsReleases/NR241015TreeDedicationInMemoryOfLisaMarieYoungAndAllMMIWG2S.html

National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Reclaiming power and place: The final report [News release]. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/News-Release-Final-Report.pdf

Statistics Canada. (2023). Court outcomes in homicides of Indigenous women and girls, 2009 to 2021 (Catalogue no. 85-002-X). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2023001/article/00006-eng.htm

Statistics Canada. (2023). Gender-related homicide of women and girls in Canada (Catalogue no. 85-002-X). https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2023001/article/00003-eng.pdf

Trottier, K. (2025, May 4). What we choose to see. Culturally Committed. https://www.culturallycommitted.com/post/what-we-choose-to-see-1 

Women and Gender Equality Canada. (2024). Ending gender-based violence against Indigenous peoples. https://www.canada.ca/en/women-gender-equality/gender-based-violence/ending-gbv-indigenous.html

George heard Lauren's voice say his aunt's name and asked that it be shared here. That is community. That is exactly what this work is about.

Lauren didn't hesitate when she chose her topic. She didn't soften the word genocide. She named women who are from here, on land she acknowledged as not her own, and asked her listeners to keep asking why their cases remain unsolved.

That is what Senator Sinclair was pointing toward. Not a requirement. A person who knows better and decides to act like it.

To Lauren, and to every graduate stepping forward this June: we see you. And we believe in your ability to keep the work of reconciliation moving forward. 

🧡 Kim