Marches honour missing, slain women

Thousands of Canadians marched in memory of murdered or missing women on Sunday, part of Valentine's Day rallies held in Vancouver, Calgary and other centres across the country.

Judith Trimble, who waited inside a church gymnasium in southwest Calgary for the march to start, held a picture of her daughter, Cara Ellis.

"My daughter is somewhere looking down on all this and she knows this is for her," Trimble said. "That's why I'm doing it. It's for her. And all the other girls."

Ellis, a 25-year-old addicted to drugs and working as a prostitute, disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in 1997.

"She is the 26th person on the list of indictments against Robert Pickton," Trimble said. "So this is very emotional for me."

Tradition began in Vancouver

It is the memory of women like Ellis that the annual march, which began in Vancouver 19 years ago, is meant to honour.

Olympic celebrations paused Sunday as thousands of people paid tribute to missing and slain woman — one of the largest of the annual marches that has taken place in Vancouver over the years.

The group followed the drumbeat of a First Nations elder through the Downtown Eastside and held a news conference, hoping to attract media from around the world on hand for the Olympics.

Leaders in B.C.'s aboriginal community have called for a public inquiry into the deaths of the slain and missing women.

"I think having international media in the city today is an opportunity today, is a day that can put greater pressure on our government to take steps, to be seen to take steps," Maggie de Vries said. "We're asking for a commitment to a public inquiry as soon as one is possible."

Hundreds march in Calgary

Hundreds marched down the sidewalk in Calgary, some holding placards lined with black and white photos of murdered or missing Canadian women.

Organizers say one-quarter of Calgary's homicides are related to domestic violence and they hope the march will raise awareness about Alberta's high rate of domestic abuse and inspire people to take a stand against it.

Suzanne Dzus, who organized the rally in Calgary, said as a mother and a grandmother, those statistics are particularly worrisome.

"I want them to be safe," she said. "I want to be safe in this world. And when I look at how violence against women is escalating in Canada and Alberta especially, something needs to change. And somebody has to do something."

This was the second year the march was held in Calgary. The Montreal march focused on missing and slain aboriginal women. Organizer Rachel Alouki Labbe said she does not think police are making enough progress in Quebec investigations.

"I think they just don't care because so far they did not resolve a lot of cases," she said. "So I think that if they really care they can do a little bit more than that," she said.