Please Click Here to find recent news, events and information from CUPE Ontario.
The Sisters In Spirit campaign has organized over 110 vigils in communities across the country on October 4 2012 to raise awareness and demand action for missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls.
CUPE supports the campaign and will be participating in the Ottawa rally and vigil on Parliament Hill. Gloria Lepine, Co-Senator of the CUPE National Aboriginal Council, will speak at the rally, and members from the CUPE National Aboriginal Council will present hundreds of postcards collected through the “Have you seen our sisters?” campaign. The campaign was started by the CUPE Alberta Aboriginal Council and has received responses from across Canada.
We encourage CUPE members and staff to participate in local vigils, and support the ongoing campaign for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada.
Before its funding was cut, Sisters in Spirit documented almost 600 deaths and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls, and yet the federal government has not taken concrete steps to address this national tragedy. These vigils are held to raise awareness and demand action for missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. The vigils also commemorate the women, girls, communities and families affected by this crisis by honouring their lives.
The Native Women’s Association of Canada is calling on the federal government to hold a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada and to do so by involving Aboriginal women in the design, decision-making, process and implementation of this inquiry.
Visit October4th.ca for more information and for vigil locations.
