Families walk Highway of Tears before missing, murdered women hearing
SMITHERS, B.C. — Rhonda Lee McIsaac says she’s walking the Highway of Tears for all the women who can’t.
She was among the dozens of family members and advocates of missing and murdered Indigenous women who walked the final stretch of an emotional 350-km journey along Hwy. 16 on Monday.
They sang and beat drums while carrying a banner emblazoned with the faces of those who have disappeared or been killed along the notorious stretch of road in British Columbia’s Interior.
“I’m walking for everybody who cannot walk,” said McIsaac. “I have lost a loved one. I grew up in foster care and I was adopted out. This is part of my story.”
The group left Prince Rupert on Thursday and was set to arrive later Monday in Smithers, where the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls will hold hearings.
The walkers are accompanied by vehicles and have covered sections of the route in a relay fashion, allowing them to complete the walk of hundreds of kilometres over the span of a few days.
Inquiry commissioner Michele Audette joined the group three days ago, while Chief Commissioner Marion Buller and Commissioner Qajaq Robinson were expected to join on Monday.
Audette said she is walking to honour the resilience and strength of the families who will be speaking for the first time to the inquiry. The hearings will be powerful, she said.
“I feel it since I arrived, there’s a lot of emotion, lots of anxiety also or stress, because it’s the first time for them,” she said. “Just being there beside them and listening, maybe it’s helped.”
The inquiry has been plagued by controversy, including the resignation of commissioner Marilyn Poitras this summer and complaints from families about poor communications and delays.
Buller told a Senate committee last week that the inquiry’s work has been hampered by federal bureaucracy.
Gladys Radek has walked the highway for seven years in honour of the disappearance of her niece, Tamara Lynn Chipman, and she said this journey will be her last.
“All of these walks are very emotional. They’re very spiritually draining and it’s a lot of physical exercise for those of us who are not used to walking such great distances,” said Radek, who is missing a leg.
More than 40 people have signed up to speak at the Smithers hearings, which run Tuesday through Thursday. They are the second hearings held by the inquiry after it visited Whitehorse in May.
The inquiry is set to visit nine communities this fall, including Edmonton, Winnipeg and Thunder Bay, Ont.