In the first episode, we share the story of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old girl whose body was pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg in August, 2014, sparking international attention, and shining a spotlight on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Thelma Favel (great aunt), Sargent John O’Donovan (Winnipeg Police) Cindy Guimonde (guidance councillor), Nahanni Fontaine (Special Advisor on Aboriginal Women’s Issues for the Indigenous Issues Committee of Cabinet for Manitoba), Mary Wilson (Spiritual Advisor)
Women have been assaulted, gone missing, and been murdered along British Columbia’s Highway 16 for decades. Alberta Williams and Ramona Wilson are two women whose only mistake was getting into the wrong vehicle on the Highway of Tears.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Claudia Williams (sister), Ray Michalko (private investigator), Wayne Clary (Head of E-Pana), Angela Marie MacDougall (Executive Director at Battered Women’s Support Services, BC), Craig Benjamin (Amnesty International), Matilda Wilson (mother) Brenda Wilson (sister), Chief Terry Teegee (cousin)
Like many other women, Danielle LaRue and Ashley Machiskinic were victims of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Ashley’s death was deemed a suicide. A murderer anonymously confessed to Danielle’s death. No justice has been served, but changes have been made to promote justice and safety for women in this community in the future.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Kim LaRue (sister), Evelyn Dick (grandmother), Robert Dick (grandfather), Mona Woodward (cousin), Dave Dickson (outreach worker, friend)
Marie Jeanne Kreiser’s family was looking forward to seeing her for Thanksgiving, 1987, in Slave Lake, Alberta. She never arrived. Though her family knows Marie Jeanne’s case may never be solved, they want the world to know who she truly was.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Lorna Martin (daughter), Gail Leech (daughter), Sharon Patterson (daughter), Arlene Pearson (daughter), Murray Marcichiw (RCMP Staff Sergeant), Jody Stonehouse (Researcher, University of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies), Liza Sunley (ED, Lurana Shelter)
Emily Osmond was 78 years old when she was last seen by her nephew on her property on the outskirts of Kawacatoose First Nation, Saskatchewan, in September, 2007. Her family believes she was taken, because Emily’s beloved dogs were abandoned, and she told no-one she was leaving. This peaceful woman vanished without a trace.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Myrna LaPlante (niece), Jessica LaPlante (great niece), April Buffalo-Robe (niece), Lloyd Goodwill (retired RCMP)
In 2009, 17-year-old Cherisse Houle’s body was found near Sturgeon Creek, in rural Manitoba. Cherisse was a vulnerable teenager whose life was plagued by recurring drug use and sexual exploitation. She was a mother herself, trying to better her life.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Barb Houle (mother) Jessica Houle (sister), Linda English (foster parent), Shawn Pike (Project Devote).
In the late summer of 2010, 20-year-old Amber Guiboche was seen getting into a red truck with a lone male occupant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was never seen again. Her family had already been torn apart by the suicide of their mother. But Amber’s abduction drives them to search for answers and to support other families of MMIWG.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Kyle Ketmatch (brother), Ashley Geddes (sister), Detective Sargent Shaunna Neufeld (Winnipeg Police)
Claudette Osborne-Tyo was 21-years-old when she was last seen in Winnipeg in 2008. The mother of four children, Claudette was abused as a child, and struggled with drug addiction. But her family loved her very much, and have become some of the most powerful advocates and leaders in the support of MMIWG.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Bernadette Smith (sister), Shawn Pike (Project Devote), Matthew Bushby (children’s father), Bob Chrismas (former Winnipeg Police)
17-year-old Fonassa Bruyere’s family got the sense from Fonassa that she might be in danger. When she went missing from the corner of Selkirk Avenue and Charles Street in Winnipeg, they never saw her alive again. A victim of child exploitation, explores the vulnerabilities for at risk youth, and the healing her family experiences in walking to heal and raise awareness.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Janet Bruyere (grandmother), Crystal Bruyere (cousin), Rob Lasson (Project Devote), Nahanni Fontaine (Special Advisor on Aboriginal Women’s Issues)
Tanya Nepinak’s disappearance and presumed murder is one of many in a long series of unsolved violent deaths in her family. Tanya’s children have been deeply affected, and many of those who love her have become advocates for the MMIWG. A serial killer’s confession failed to solve the case of Tanya’s murder, as did a search of a Winnipeg landfill. Violence continues to plague the family to this day.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Sue Caribou (aunt), Sargent John O’Donovan (Winnipeg Police), Vernon Mann (children’s father)
Sandra Johnson was a pow wow princess from a loving family on the Seine River First Nation. In Thunder Bay, Ontario on the morning of February 13, 1992, 18-year-old Sandra Johnson’s naked body was found murdered. There are many theories as to who could have committed the horrible crime, but no justice for Sandra’s family.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Sharon Johnson (sister), EJ Kwandibens (friend), Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum, Andrew Hay (police)
Maniwaki and Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in Quebec are neighbouring communities. It was from there in 2008 that best friends Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander vanished without a single clue.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Laurie Odjick (mother), Earl McGregor (grandfather), Maria Jacko (aunt), Damon Jacko (brother), Gordon McGregor (Director Kitigan Zibi Band Police), Claudette Commanda (Kitigan Zibi Band Council), Bryan Alexander (father), Shannon McConini (cousin), Heather Crank (niece), Juanita Alexander (aunt), Jody Wilson Raybould (Minister of Justice), Caroline Bennett (Minister of Indigenous Affairs)
On Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009, Tanya Brooks had final telephone conversations with her family. It would be the last time they would ever speak with her again. A mother of five, Tanya was 36 years old at the time of her murder. She was seen later that evening walking on Gottingen Street in north Halifax, before being found in a school window well the next day. Each year a memorial march gains momentum, strengthening the collective objective to find her murderer.
INTERVIEW SUBJECTS: Vanessa Brooks (sister), CJ Brooks (child), Cheryl Melony (Women’s Shelter worker), Jason Withrow (police)
