Thunder Bay victim's sister joins roundtable on missing, murdered women
'Somehow, maybe there'll be closure,' says sister of Sandra Johnson, whose 1982 murder remains unsolved
A Thunder Bay woman will be among a select few family members of missing and murdered indigenous women taking part in a national roundtable with Premiers and two federal cabinet ministers on Friday.
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Sharon Johnson, whose sister Sandra was killed in Thunder Bay in 1982, said she was invited to attend the meeting as an Ontario representative during a strategy session last week.
Up to 10 family members from each province and territory were invited to a closed, relatives-only session in Ottawa on Thursday, and the roundtable discussions with politicians on Friday.
"I don't consider myself as someone who has all the knowledge about what needs to take place on the political side," Johnson said. "But I'm willing to give it a shot, as hard as it's going to be. I know it's going to be difficult to talk about my sister again."
"I don't want my little sister to be forgotten because it's really hard to lose a family member that way, in the way that we lost her," Johnson said of her motivation for attending the meeting.
The roundtable is an "interim step" towards a national, public inquiry, according to Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.
The RCMP estimated that since 1980, there were 1,181 cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada. More than 1,000 were homicides.
Johnson said she has been reading lots of different opinions about whether or not an inquiry will address the wishes of families but she hasn't yet formed her own opinion.
Whatever happens at the meeting she said her deepest desire is that "somehow, maybe there will be closure for my family, once and for all."