THUNDER BAY -- Gladys Radek says she’s never visited a community that hasn’t been touched by the tragedy of murdered and missing women.
Not one, she said, having made two trips across Canada this summer alone, her vehicle plastered in bright pink and purple framed pictures of 113 Aboriginal women who have disappeared or been killed, many along the infamous Highway of Tears near her British Columbia home.
Radek, whose niece Tamara Chipman vanished on Highway 16 in 2005, gave a moving and emotional speech on Friday at Thunder Bay city hall before more than 100 people joined her on the annual Full Moon Memory Walk on the city’s south side.
“It was a way of life for us up there,” she said, acknowledging the problem has been festering for decades, but has just come to light in recent years.
“When Tamara went missing, it knocked the breath out of me and I started worrying about my own four daughters.”
The pain has devastated her family in the ensuing years, striking particularly at one of her daughters, who shared a birthday with her cousin.
“She doesn’t celebrate her birthday anymore. All she can remember is Tamara went missing,” said Radek, relieved an inquiry into murdered and missing women is finally going to move forward, but not convinced any action will ultimately be taken.
But it must, she said.
“This isn’t a political thing. We need to work together so that we can end this vicious cycle of 526 years of violence against Anishnabek women,” said Radek, who late last year had quadruple bypass surgery, but a week later was back wearing her activist shoes.
It's a dedication to which at least one woman in the crowd could relate.
Founding the Full Moon Memory Walk was Sharon Johnson’s way of paying tribute to her 18-year-old sister Sandra, who was murdered on Feb. 13, 1992.
The pain is still just as strong today. Like thousands of others, Johnson wants closure.
“Her case is still unsolved to this day,” she quietly told the crowd in a brief speech.
It appears the tide might finally be starting to chance and Johnson -- or other women sharing her plight -- might one day get the answers they seek.
Thunder Bay Police Chief J.P. Levesque said the time for talk is over.
It’s time for action.
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s time,” Levesque said. “It’s time to go on a difficult journey. It’s time to have some very difficult conversations and it’s time for leaders and police leaders to acknowledge it’s time,” Levesque said.
He wasn't the only political leader ready to put an end to years of inaction.
NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) said Friday's walk was one participants would do as one nation.
“We’re going to walk together and we’re going to keep kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight,” Angus said.
The walk began at city hall and concluded in the city’s east end.
