Sudbury police hosts conference to honour MMIWG

People from all over northern Ontario are gathering in the City of Greater Sudbury for a two-day conference meant to honour Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 

This is the second conference hosted by the N'Swakamok Native Friendship Centre and the Greater Sudbury Police Service.

It's all about connecting the families so they can share their stories and honour their loved ones.

"It's completely from the heart, it's tragic, the journeys that you hear that these families have to go through and the loss that they feel, like, it's really sad and impactful," said Shannon Agowissa, the Aboriginal Liaison Officer for the Greater Sudbury Police Service and one of the organizers of the event.

More than 100 people gathered for the conference. Families who were there shared stories of their loved ones, along side police officers, politicians and other community members. 

"I think the community needs this, we need community building, we need our community spirit to be worked on and coming together like this is a beautiful thing," said Agowissa.

While the Sudbury area has not had many MMIWG cases, police chief Paul Pedersen says this conference is to help bring awareness to the issue and to help prevent it from happening in the community.

"I'm sad that we have to have this conversation. I'm sad that thousands of women and girls are lost and murdered," said Pedersen.

"Yet I'm encouraged, I'm encouraged because here we are in this little city of Sudbury doing what we can do here, trying to make things better for people in our community and other communities around us."