NEWS
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“No More Stolen Sisters”
Montrealers Hold Vigil for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Nadia Liboneye
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n Feb. 14, Montrealers gathered near the Atwater metro station to commemorate the lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Trans people. The Iskweu Project, an initiative started by Montreal’s Native Women’s shelter, hosted the candlelight vigil which was attended by around 200 protesters. Iskweu’s Research Coordinator, Janis Qavavauq-Bibeau, explained the importance of media exposure in the fulfillment of the project’s goal: assisting families impacted by the prevalent violence against Indigenous women and girls. “The media wasn’t giving enough attention to cases of Indigenous women, so we started doing vigils to get some more attention,” she said.
PHOTO IVAN DE JACQUELIN
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Canada’s lengthy colonial history and the resulting intergenerational trauma inflicted on Indigenous communities have a direct influence on ongoing increases in violence experienced by Indigenous women. The Iskweu Project aims to advocate for and provide support to those directly and indirectly impacted by violence against Indigenous women. The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has reported that Indigenous women and girls make up 24 per cent of female homicide victims in Canada, despite only making up four per cent of the country’s female population. In response to what Iskweu describes as a lack of adequate
response to police cases involving Indigenous women, the project gathers annually on Feb. 14 and Oct. 4 to help provide a voice to the families and loved ones of those who have suffered. At the vigil, a number of volunteers assisted the event’s organizers. Handing out small tealight candles, Cabot Square was gently lit as the sound of throat singers and drummers kicked off the vigil. Volunteer Matilda Cerone, who has attended Iskweu’s annual vigils for three years, expressed her joy at seeing the crowd that had gathered for the event. “It’s just nice to see a lot of people,” she said, noting how the pandemic had previously impacted Iskweu’s ability to gather in person. Before departing on the protest route down Sainte-Catherine
An Alternative to SMSV
ITFA’s Fight for Survivors of Sexual Violence on Campus Hannah Vogan
COURTESY BECCA WILGOSH
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mid a series of potential Accreditation act violations, an ongoing boycott and an unbalanced ratio of students on the Standing Committee on Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence (SMSV), a new grassroots association is budding at Concordia. Growing to replace the foundation for how Concordia handles sexual misconduct and sexual violence cases is the Inter-organizational Table for Feminist Affairs.
ITFA is a collaboration between labour unions, student unions, and other groups working at Concordia, explicitly trying to achieve gender equity and fighting sexual violence. The organization is also responsible for formally sending out a letter of demands to the university following the SMSV boycott, which began on Oct. 5, 2022. Since the letter was forwarded, ITFA's line of communication with the university has ended at receiving an acknowledgement of their demands.
Their three demands are for student-led solutions, transparency, and gender equity. ITFA plans to achieve these demands by maintaining its boycott, pressuring Concordia. "I've been at Concordia since 2017. So I've seen how there has been this progression of sexual violence," Julianna Smith, the Concordia Student Union’s external affairs and mobilization coordinator and a representative for ITFA, told The Link. Smith mentioned the issue of sexual violence on campus "is being addressed, but not in a way that is actually supporting students and supporting survivors." So far, ITFA comprises the CSU, Graduate Students' Association (GSA), Teaching and Research Assistants at Concordia (TRAC), and the Center for Gender Advocacy. According to Smith, the organization is planning to reach out to other unions on campus. ITFA is working on gathering more stake-
St., community leaders like Elder Kevin Deer and Ellen Gabriel, addressed the large crowd. Deer denounced the violence that has been taking place against Indigenous women. “When we see that we are all participating in this sacred dance of life [...] we have no right to kill another human being.” During her speech, Gabriel encouraged attendees to hold governments accountable for their failures to properly investigate cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. “Put pressure on your government, don’t leave it up to Indigenous people,” she said. “We can fight the fight, but we have been fighting for over 500 years,” Gabriel added. After the leaders finished addressing the crowd, the vigil transi-
tioned into a protest march which exited Cabot Square and converged onto Sainte-Catherine. Accompanied by police cruisers, the large crowd could be heard chanting “no more stolen sisters,” as drummers marched in unison with the crowd. Iskweu’s announcements for the protest, which were widely shared through Instagram and Facebook, featured a QR code that leads to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’ Master List of Report Recommendations. The document points out the numerous systemic failures in the treatment of Indigenous cases, and the areas in which Indigenous peoples need additional support in the hopes that the violence finally comes to an end.
holders because they desire to have a variety of voices at the table to ensure that they represent what students and workers want. "Our next steps of where we wanna take [ITFA are that] we want to broaden it," Smith said. "We are hoping that by having [other unions], we can have students have a direct line of communication with ITFA." ITFA gathers twice a month and meets with newer member organizations interested in sending representatives to the coalition. According to Saskia Kowalchuk, TRAC’s Mobilization Officer and TRAC representative for ITFA, the meetings are to build and decipher capacity and clarify what mandates should be imposed. When asked why ITFA was created, Kowalchuk answered, referring to SMSV, that "the student representatives were historically undermined. They weren't really given the chance to participate meaningfully." "We have a minority seat on [SMSV]; we are four of 13 representatives. We were never able, in terms of our shared interest, to vote with any power against maybe opposing views from the administration,” Kowalchuk told The Link. “We decided it would be a lot better use of our power and our
numbers to boycott the committee because we felt that as an advisory body, it didn't meaningfully do what it set out to do in terms of changing policy around sexual violence at Concordia,” added Kowalchuk. “As students, as student workers, and as supporters of survivors of sexual violence, we didn't want to participate in what we see to be an invalid process." ITFA’s members wanted to additionally call out to and welcome any students currently sitting on the SMSV committee to have a neutral conversation with them. "We would really like to give them the context as to why there is a boycott going on and just let them know our side of the situation, as well so that they can make a fully informed decision on whether or not they want to actually sit on the committee," said Smith. ITFA is still in the process of developing an onboarding process and deciding who can be a member of the association. "The core of it is that we want it to be worker and student-run, rather than being run by the administration,” Smith added. “We want the democratic bodies at the university that represent students and workers to have the most power to enact policy changes and take action."
thelinknewspaper.ca • February 21, 2023