THUNDER BAY -- Sharon Johnson thinks of her little sister every day but this time of year especially.
Sandra Johnson was murdered in 1992. She was found on the ice of the Neebing-McIntyre floodway, just 18 years old and the crime still unsolved. This past Saturday would have been her birthday.
On Monday, Johnson gathered community members, politicians, police officials and others at city hall to honour her sister and the more than 1,100 missing and murdered First Nations women across Canada as she has now for the past 11 years for the Full Moon Memory Walk.
"Personally it's just something in my heart that I have to do in memory of my sister," she said.
Coun. Paul Pugh spoke of the need for a national inquiry into missing and murdered. Thunder Bay Police Service Deputy Chief Andy Hay said the women are casualties of a genocidal systemic legacy in Canada.
For Johnson if the walk can raise some political will to get answers for still grieving families that's good. But it's not why she gathers everyone together each September.
"I do it because it's just something that I feel I have to do. It's sacred," she said.
Johnson holds another walk on Valentine's Day each year. Her sister was discovered Feb. 13.
