More needs to be done, even twenty years after

All those years ago, Brenda recalls the packed CN Centre and what unfolded was a series of recommendations – 33, in fact. And the most recent achievement is the inclusion of new cell towers along Highway 16.

“I’m so happy that Rogers’ was able to come to the families, meet with the families and talk to them and find out why it was needed, why it’s so important to have that communication along Highway 16 and into the remote areas.”

Fifteen years after the symposium, another recommendation was fulfilled with bus service along the Highway.

And last October, the federal government announced funding to institute a Red Dress Alert pilot program, something the MP for the riding in question strongly supports.

“I’ve been pressing the federal government to bring in a pilot project in British Columbia,” says Taylor Bachrach, MP for Skeena-Bulkley. “There’s already a pilot project underway in Manitoba. That province, of course, needs it very badly as well. And so I’m hopeful that the provincial government and the federal government working together can get one up and running as soon as possible.”

But Brenda Wilson sums it up nicely.

“The bus service was 15 years [in the making]. This year it’s we have the towers lit up and that is like 18 years since those recommendations, since we started those recommendations. And it’s just, like, wow.”

But the message remains the same, despite the years that have passed. The plight of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls cannot be forgotten.

by Cheryl Jahn

More needs to be done, even twenty years after

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