Indigenous woman fought for decades to receive accountability in her mother's death

More than 4 thousand cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls 2 spirit and trans people (MMIWG2ST) have occurred in Canada over the last 40 years.

In many of these cases, families have not received proper investigation and support from government and law enforcement. As a result, many families and loved ones of those missing or murdered take cases into their own hands. 

Local 514 spoke with Bridget Tolley, who's mother Gladys Tolley, was struck and killed by a Quebec officer driving a provincial police cruiser in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation in western Quebec in 2001.

For two decades, the family fought for justice, only receiving an apology in April of last year. Tolley told Local 514 that an apology is not accountability. 

Tolley said that investigators weren’t transparent and missed important details in the case. 

Tolley founded the grassroots activist and support organization for MMIW, Families of Sisters in Spirit (FSIS). 

FSIS is led by and for families of missing and murdered Indigenous WG2ST, operating from donations and without government support. 

Tolley said given the fact little has been done to reduce cases of MMIWG2ST, she's concerned for future generations of Indigenous people.

Local 514 reached out to Marc Miller, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs,  but he did not grant us an interview or respond for a comment before publication of this story.

Multiple reports have been released for the last few decades identifying the issues and severity of this case, but Tolley says not enough is being done to stop cases of MMIWG2ST from continuing.

"There's more and more missing and murdered Indigenous women. Millions are going into it – recommendation after recommendation," said Tolley. "All these people in politics should know whats going on, why don't they do anything to fix it?"