Band offers reward in case
Nova Scotia First Nation hopes $100K will help solve death of mother
The chief of a Nova Scotia First Nations community says he’s “had enough” when it comes to unsolved crimes against Indigenous women and girls, so his band is offering a $100,000 reward to help solve the death of a young mother.
“Someone out there might have some kind of information that would enable the law-enforcement people to resolve this issue and (bring) the person or persons responsible ... to justice,” said We’koqma’q (Waycobah) Chief Rod Googoo in an interview Tuesday.
We’koqma’q First Nation is offering the reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the death of Cassidy Bernard, a 22-year-old woman found dead in a We’koqma’q, Cape Breton, home on Oct. 24. Two infant children were also in the home, unharmed. Nova Scotia RCMP would not identify the victim, but Googoo confirmed that it was Bernard and that she was the mother of the infants. Bernard posted regularly on her Facebook page about her identical twin babies, born about six months ago.
Googoo said the young woman was a “sweet innocent child” whose motherhood was cut short.
He said he’s confident that RCMP investigators are “doing the best they can” but he feels compelled to take action as a leader in his community.
Police have not called the death a homicide, but Googoo said he believes Bernard’s death is yet another on the long list of murdered Indigenous women in Canada. There are common threads in many of those deaths, he said. Among them is that “someone knows something in each and every case. Someone has to know something.”
“This can’t continue on,” he said, adding that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is not enough to solve the “thousands upon thousands of unsolved cases.”
“The leadership in each and every community has to step up now. Leaders have to lead. We’ve had enough — enough talk, enough of depending on somebody else to fix our problems. We need to do something too, and what we’re doing we feel is right for our community and for the family of Cassidy Bernard.”
Googoo said the money for the reward comes from the We’koqma’q First Nation’s own revenue, and the band is offering the reward independently of the police.
“While we appreciate the community’s decision to offer a reward for information, we are confident that we have the investigation in hand and will provide an update when more information is available,” said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Clarke in an email. Clarke said investigators are waiting for the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service to do an “examination into the circumstances of the death.”
Heather Fairbairn, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service, said she could not speak about specific investigations.
“Generally speaking, cases can range from several weeks to months due to the comprehensive nature of the workand the various tests and analysis that are involved and often completed by third parties,” Fairbairn said in an email.
To raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, members of the We’koqma’q First Nation are planning to walk across Canso Causeway — connecting Cape Breton to mainland Nova Scotia — at noon Wednesday.