Saskatoon

Saskatchewan people gather in Ottawa for missing and murdered indigenous women

Saskatchewan leaders, politicians and family members gather in Ottawa for national roundtable into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Saskatchewan leaders, politicians and family members in Ottawa for roundtable

Carol Wolfe said she will never stop looking for her daughter Karina, who went missing from Saskatoon in 2010. (Madeline Kotzer/CBC)

Some Saskatchewan people who have lost family members are in Ottawa today for the national roundtable on missing and murdered indigenous women.

One of them is Saskatoon's Carol Wolfe. Her daughter, Karina, went missing from the city in 2010.

The mother joined Canadian politicians and leaders for the national roundtable.

Darlene Okemaysim-Sicotte is co-chair of Iskwewuk Ewichiwitochik, Cree for Women Walking Together. The Saskatoon group of activists works to educate people about the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women and is pushing for a national inquiry into the issue. 

She hopes the meeting will yield an action plan for what a national inquiry will look like.

Okemaysim-Sicotte said there needs to be an official way to streamline education and police work on the issue.

"A kind of new legislation of some type, I don't know what that would look like, but I know there's probably something around the world that resembles something that could work for Canada," she said.

Action to improve police work

Darlene Okemaysim-Sicotte is co-chair of Women Walking Together in Saskatoon. (Madeline Kotzer/CBC News)
Okemaysim-Sicotte said the shared experiences of people who have lost loved ones, like Carol Wolfe, will help to streamline police protocols when women go missing.

"One of the things that families always say [is needed] when they are doing a search is that when they get leads they're going from province to province is a quicker form of communication between all the dispatch offices of RCMP and police services."

Saskatchewan leaders at the roundtable include FSIN Interim Chief Kimberly Jonathan​ and Okanese First Nation Chief Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier, as well as other politicians including Justice Minister Gordon Wyatt.