Photo by CP
PASSIONATE WORDS – An unidentified family member, right, looks on Tuesday as she listens to May Bolton talk about the day that she found her murdered mother, Elsie Shorty, during the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls taking place in Whitehorse. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
The family of Elsie Shorty,
The family of Elsie Shorty, a grandmother who was shot dead in 1992, asked the commissioners of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to consider a number of recommendations Tuesday, including indigenous language interpreters for the RCMP and mentorship services for aboriginal youth.
The thread of residential schools ran through multiple stories heard Tuesday in Whitehorse.
Shorty’s daughter, May Bolton, was sent to a government-sponsored boarding school.
Bolton said she went into “residential school survival mode” upon discovering her mother’s lifeless body inside a cabin.
The phrase describes the coping mechanism she developed in school, in which she would shut down emotionally to endure trauma.
Shorty’s husband was charged with the murder of his wife, but the family believes he was innocent.
He only spoke Dene and would reply to any question asked of him in English – including “Did you shoot your wife?” – with a simple, “Yes, Sir,” said Bolton.
He was in jail for a short time before he was released and required to check in with the RCMP on a daily basis, said Bolton.
He has since died, and none of the family members who testified Tuesday knew whether he stood trial.
Bolton broke down after listening to a relative testify that he heard a police officer call Shorty “just another native woman.”
“She was not just another native woman. She was my mother,” Bolton said, choking back sobs.
“She was a wife. She was also a grandmother and a sister, and she was also an aunt and a friend to many who met her.”
Tuesday’s hearing began with opening statements from all five commissioners.
Buller said Canada needs to hear the truth about the violence endured by generations of indigenous women and girls in order to have a better understanding of systemic violence, to find solutions and heal.
“Today is a turning point in our national history,” she said. “Now there is a national stage for the stories and the voices of the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls through their families.”
More than 40 people are expected to share their stories before the hearings conclude Thursday. Other community meetings will be held in the fall.
See more coverage below and in Thursday’s edition.
By Laura Kane
The Canadian Press
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Comments (1)
Up 19 Down 6
Rockey Silver on May 31, 2017 at 8:51 pm
So we get to a story where the police locate and charge a suspect who by chance is the husband which seems to be the case in many of these occurrences however the family does not believe them and on and on it goes. One story teller is asking for justice, another story teller is saying that the police have the wrong guy, not sure what they are looking for really.