By Lasia Kretzel

Dozens gather for Saskatoon MMIW march

Feb 15, 2015 | 7:30 AM

The smell of burning sage drifted over the blowing snow as a crowd of more than 150 people marched in Saskatoon for missing and murdered indigenous women.

The Saskatoon march joined hundreds of others across Canada for the 25th annual event.

Families and friends clutched photos of lost daughters, sisters and friends as a single drummer led the marchers down 3rd Avenue in the downtown core.

Before the march, several individuals and community leaders spoke to the crowd including Mayor Don Atchison, Saskatchewan minister of education Don Morgan, Liberal candidate Lisa Abbott, and Green Party candidate Mark Bigland-Pritchard.

The family of Monica Burns came forward to express their support for the march. Burns was found dead Jan. 17 on a snowmobile trail north of Prince Albert and Todd Daniel McKeaveney is charged with second-degree murder.

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“Let’s wish those beautiful women beside us a happy Valentine’s Day,” Eugene Arcand, uncle of Burns, said.

Arcand said he felt the family needed to come to spread the knowledge that what happened to Burns could happen to anyone and must be stopped.
 
“This scourge in our country is going to continue and we never know when it’s going to hit one of us, no matter what colour of skin you have, and that’s where coexistence is so important,” he said.

The second annual Saskatoon march comes on the heels of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s vote to support an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

March organizer Darlene Rose Okemaysim-Sicotte said the vote is a good start.

“We love the momentum that’s going on around the country… We feel like there’s more allies all around the country,” she said, reiterating the call for a national inquiry.

Arcand said while he agrees with the need for an inquiry, services and aid for aboriginal women need to happen today.

The march comes just days before Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) leaders gather in Saskatoon for a roundtable discussion on Thursday to prepare for the national meeting on Feb. 27.

The week also marks the FSIN’s First Nations Story Telling Through Data Workshop Series which takes place Feb. 17-19. 

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