Cheam First Nation chief calls for murdered men to be included in inquiry
Dawn was our sister... I changed her diapers when she was an infant and fed her pabulum and made sure she was safe. All that remained of my sister was a bloodstain on an undergarment in the trailer in which Mr. Pickton lived. There were no other remains.- Chief Ernie Crey's sister Dawn, was killed by Robert Pickton
The story of Dawn's death is one of the untold many that are meant to get a fuller reckoning now that the federal government is launching the long called-for inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Dawn's story is one that Ernie Crey, the chief of the Cheam First Nation in B.C., has told to the media many times before.
But Crey has another story — one he's never shared publicly until now. It's about his brother, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1968. Crey has also lost three other siblings. His brother's death is an example of why Crey feels the nascent inquiry should expand its scope to include aboriginal men and boys alongside women.
I've looked at recent reports on rates of homicide involving young indigenous men and boys... and I'm sorry, it's irrefutable, the statistics involving men and boys are really staggering.- Chief Ernie Crey of the Cheam First Nation
This statistics are staggering. UBC Okanagan researcher Penny Handley discovered that of all of Canada's aboriginal murder victims, 71 per cent were men or boys.
April Eve Wiberg agrees with Crey that men and boys should be included in the public inquiry of missing and murdered people. She's the founder of the Stolen Sisters and Brothers Awareness Movement, and says her group has now added "brothers" to their name to include the forgotten men and boys who are victims of violence.
We absolutely should look into the homicide ... the very high rates of our stolen brothers.- Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada
While Dawn Lavell-Harvard, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada agrees stolen men and boys are "equally valuable, important and loved," she feels violence against indigenous men and women are different and adding men and boys to the public inquiry would be a disservice, rendering the inquiry less effective. However, Lavell-Harvard adds, if the government is willing to expand resources there may be more room to expand the mandate for the inquiry.
This segment was produced by The Current's Marc Apollonio, Julian Uzielli and Marino Greco.