(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau

A "walk for justice" to demand action on the cases of an estimated 3,000 missing Aboriginal and other women has left from the west coast, aiming to reach Ottawa in mid-September.

     Early on the morning of National Aboriginal Day, June 21, a crowd gathered for breakfast at Vancouver's Trout Lake Park to honour the walkers heading east into the Fraser Valley. Speakers from a number of Aboriginal and labour groups pledged support for the walk, which will be done in relay fashion across the country this summer.

     Among the speakers was Gladys Radek, from the Gitxsan Wet- suwit'en territory in northern British Columbia. She first conceived of the idea in September 2007, while walking down Highway 16 (the "Highway of Tears") to honour her missing niece, Tamara Lynn Chipman, who disappeared outside of Prince Rupert two years earlier.

     As Radek said in an earlier statement announcing the walk, "After Tamara's disappearance I began research and contacted many family members who have also lost their loved ones on this treacherous highway. Families are suffering because there has been no justice, closure, equality or accountability over the past four decades from our authorities. Our data‑base has increased to over 3000 women and children still missing or categorized as unsolved murderers across the country; there are over 200 in two areas of BC alone. This is not including those women who have died through acts of domestic violence or those who are still disappearing at an average of about three a week. Many of these 3000 women are Aboriginal...

     "In January 2008 I told a few people about my vision and we have been working non‑stop to take initiatives to address this continual violence against our women to the top leaders of this country, Prime Minister Steven Harper and INAC Minister Chuck Strahl. We began a petition online to be presented on Parliament Hill on September 15, 2008. At that time we will demand a public inquiry into these untimely deaths...

     "There needs to be a restructuring of the outdated judicial system, law enforcement and all levels of government and leadership so we may move forward into a society free of systemic neglect and discrimination. We need to address the racism, poverty, homelessness and domestic violence epidemics in this country. Women are targeted nationwide and we need it to stop. We are the life‑givers and caretakers of society. You all need us."

     More information on the Walk is on the web at http://www.walk4justice.piczo.com/?cr=6. The petition can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/glradek/petition.html.