Families walk Highway of Tears

Event on notorious B.C. road marks disappearance of many native women

VANCOUVER — When Gladys Radek walks the Highway of Tears, she says she can feel the spirits of women who are missing or have been murdered walking beside her.

Dozens have vanished or been killed along the notorious stretch of Highway 16 in central British Columbia. On Thursday, Radek will honour the 12th anniversary of the disappearance of her niece, Tamara Lynn Chipman, by walking the route once again.

“You can feel the pain of the families when they’re walking with you,” she said. “It’s really, really hard to describe.”

The annual journey, made by Radek and others who have lost loved ones, will span five days this year and cover 350 kilometres between Prince Rupert and Smithers. Vehicles will accompany the walkers who will cover sections of the route in a relay fashion.

Commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls are set to join the walk on Sept. 25 before community hearings are held from Sept. 26 to 28 in Smithers. This is the second set of hearings held to date by the inquiry, after it visited Whitehorse in May.

Since then, the inquiry’s executive director, Michele Moreau, and one of its commissioners, Marilyn Poitras, have quit and the Native Women’s Association of Ontario has pulled its support. The inquiry has faced growing calls for resignations and a restart.

Asked whether commissioners feel added pressure to ensure these hearings are successful, Chief Commissioner Marion Buller said they feel that obligation regardless.

“They have to be (successful), not only for our purposes, but more so for the families who come forward and share their stories with us. It’s the success from their perspective that’s the most important aspect for us,” she said.

“We’re always under scrutiny. Always. And we always will be,” she added. “I’m always open to constructive, informed criticism, as are the other commissioners. It’s part of our work.”

The federal government launched the inquiry last year.

JONATHAN HAYWARD, THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO Gladys Radek right, is the organizer of an annual walk to honour the Indigenous women who have gone missing or been murdered along an infamous B.C. highway.