Calls for Justice information session brings awareness to MMIWG

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Team held a Calls for Justice information sharing event on Feb. 2 at the Intercity Shopping Centre in Thunder Bay. The 231 Calls for Justice were delivered in the Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which is posted online.

“I honour and respect the work you are doing here to bring justice, to bring some respect for us to continue cherishing our Anishinaabekwe across the region of Ontario — it’s important,” says Fort William Councillor Desiree Morriseau-Shields during her opening comments at the Calls for Justice event. “I too get emotional; I have three young girls and I worry. I want all Anishinaabekwe to be cherished just as I cherish my girls, they deserve respect, they deserve justice when respect is not given, and that’s everyone’s job here, everyone who is standing in this room, across Thunder Bay, across Ontario, all of our communities.”

OPP Constable Tanya Kutschke, an Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation citizen, says part of her job with the OPP Indigenous Policing Bureau’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Team is to implement the Calls for Justice that are related to police services.

“We look after ensuring that all five regions within the OPP are addressing what Calls for Justice apply to their area,” Kutschke says. “As well, we work with another agency called the Family Information Liaison Unit — this unit was mandated by the National Inquiry and they look after taking requests from family members that have a lost one or loved one that has been a victim of MMIWG. Usually the requests come to us where the family has questions about the investigation.”

Kutschke says they have a detective constable on the MMIWG Team who looks into what information can be provided to the families.

“We’ve had a total of 35 requests that we’ve investigated and spoke with the family,” Kutschke says. “We have a healing circle and the families are very appreciative of this information.”

Thunder Bay Police Constable Sharlene Bourdeau, a Pays Plat citizen and member of the Animikii Wiikwedong-Deweigan drum group, spoke about the Tree of Hope, which was started in 2019 in front to the Thunder Bay Police building with the hope of honouring all the victims, families, and relatives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirited.

“The first year, we were the only service that had the Tree of Hope,” Bourdeau says, noting that the Tree of Hope had 4,000 red lights representing the names of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls across the country. “As of this year, there’s 26 police services in the province, so let’s give all the police services a hand for joining that. My hope is to have trees with red lights across the country from all three coasts. That would be just awesome to have trees lit right across the country in memory of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.”

OPP Detective Staff Sergeant Alana Morrison says the OPP began participating in the Tree of Hope initiative in 2022.

“Because we’ve got five regions within the OPP, we created a toolkit for the Tree of Hope,” Morrison says. “It explains why we are doing it, it tells you exactly what to do, and when it takes place. It’s always the first Sunday after Remembrance Day and it explains everything, what each light represents, a Missing or Murdered Indigenous Woman and Girl.”