PBI-Canada stands in solidarity with the Families of Sisters in Spirit Vigil 2021 happening today

Algonquin activist Bridget Tolley has posted on Facebook:

“This Valentine’s Day families of missing and murdered Indigenous women along with friends & allies will come together to honor our stolen sisters, show love & support for Indigenous women, families, communities and Nations and demonstrate our solidarity with Memorial Marches for MMIWGT2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Transgender and Two-Spirit people) across Canada.”

“Because of Covid-19 we are unable to meet on Parliament Hill this year on February 14th, 2021. WE will honor our loved ones by lighting a candle at 6 pm. Please feel free to share any photos or stories of our MMIWGT2S.”

Bridget adds: “In Honor of all MMIWGT2S. In Honor of all our Stolen Sisters. In Honor of all Victims of Police Killings.”

Genocide in Canada

In its final report released in June 2019, the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls found that “state actions and inactions rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies” are in part responsible for the thousands of Indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or gone missing in Canada.

That report describes this as a Canadian genocide.

The report also recognizes that this is both historic and ongoing: “Canada has displayed a continuous policy, with shifting expressed motives but an ultimately steady intention, to destroy Indigenous peoples physically, biologically and as social units.”

Journalist Brandi Morin has written: “There have been approximately 4,000 or more Indigenous murdered or missing women and girls in the last 30 years. That works out to about 133 a year, or three a week. [But in truth this crisis has] been happening since 1492.”

Indigenous land defenders killed around the world

We also remember that Global Witness has documented that 212 land and environmental rights defenders were killed globally in 2019. Over 1 in 10 of the defenders killed were women and 40% of all the defenders killed belonged to Indigenous communities. Between 2015 and 2019 over a third of all fatal attacks targeted Indigenous people, even though Indigenous peoples make up just 5% of the world’s population.

Additionally, Front Line Defenders just reported that 331 human rights defenders were killed in 2020. 44 of those killed were women and 26% of all those killed were working specifically on Indigenous peoples’ rights.

It is within this context that we recognize the risks faced by Indigenous women land defenders within this country opposed to megaprojects including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory, the Trans Mountain tar sand pipeline on Secwepemc territory, and the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam on Innu lands.

As the Families of Sisters in Spirit asks, please light a candle at 6 pm today.