Calgary 15th annual Valentine’s Day memorial march for murdered Indigenous women

Valentine’s Day is typically known as a day of celebration, but for an Indigenous community in Calgary, it’s a day to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Chantal Chagnon, co-ordinator and community member of the Valentine’s Day March, says many families are still missing loved ones, and the 15th annual march is an opportunity for the community to come together.

She also says it’s important to continue to highlight discoveries, like the recent discovery of remains found in Winnipeg.

“A lot of those families still haven’t received justice. So it’s important to come together and show the community cares,” Chagnon said.

“I think it’s important that we keep it front of mind. And unfortunately, Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people are disproportionately taken from us. So it’s really important that we stand up and we march together.”

The march, set to start at 6 p.m. at Scarboro Church, is set to have people holding cutouts and “silhouettes” of women that died or have gone missing. Chagnon says this is akin to “carrying the hopes and that memory of that person.”

“You’re carrying the burden that their family has carried for many generations,” Chagnon said.

“It’s heartfelt, it’s important to share those stories and take it out of the realm of statistics and more into these are people, these are lives that have left a huge impact with them being gone.’

The march is part of a nationwide movement to remember women, girls and Two-Spirit peoples who have been murdered or who have disappeared.

Chagnon says It is also meant to draw attention to the disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal women who have gone missing or have been killed.

“If something happened to my daughters, I would want to know that they were getting the justice that is deserved and that I was getting the answers that I needed,” Chagnon said.

A number of speakers will be present to share stories of loss, including Stephanie English, who lost her daughter, Joey English. Some of her remains have not been found after Calgary police gave up the search in 2016.

Stephanie’s other daughter, Allison English, died in 2015. RCMP ruled her death a suicide, but the family has not agreed with that conclusion.

In addition, a relative of Jacqueline Crazybull, who was killed in a stabbing rampage in 2007, will also be speaking at the event.

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According to StatsCan, around 1,200 Indigenous women and girls are missing or have been murdered across the country. However, Chagnon says the number is closer to 5,000.

“Unfortunately, the Two-Spirit people aren’t really tracked to the right amount, and only fairly recently has the Canadian census and the Alberta census actually had a third box for the gender identity of someone,” Chagnon said.

“There are so many undocumented cases, things that have been dismissed, things that have fallen through the cracks. And that doesn’t even count the ones that are assault cases. Those are all in the unsolved cases.”

She says the federal government and law enforcement agencies need to have more accountability when mistakes are made, but she also says it’s important for the community to learn from the events that happened.

“It’s our responsibility to come together to share these stories, to learn from each other, and to really raise each other up and protect each other,” Chagnon said.

“We have just as much a responsibility and a stake in this as everyone else.”

The event is offering pins from the Moose Hide Campaign, which is a nationwide movement to engage with men and boys in “ending violence towards women and children.”

Speeches are at 6:30 p.m., and the march takes off at 7 p.m.

-With files from Adeline Gladu