THUNDER BAY -- A local group wants the city to include solutions to violence in its next strategic plan.
Walking with our Sisters Thunder Bay is a group of volunteers concerned about safety in the community and missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. It came to city council Monday asking that the city make solutions to community violence a priority in the next strategic plan, work with the group to find solutions related to missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and also include the First Nations community's voice in that plan.
"We want to focus on understanding and we really want to focus on solutions," chair Leanna Marshall said.
Marshall said the group didn't come to council to blame the city, which is considered a "hotspot" as more nearly 1,200 Aboriginal women and girls have gone missing or been murdered in Canada in the last 30 years. Instead, the group wants to join the city's efforts to find solutions.
“It's not just an indigenous women’s issue, it’s everybody’s issue,” Ontario Native Women's Association policy and research director Kezia Picard said.
Coun. Iain Angus asked city manager Tim Commisso how the group could get involved in the strategic plan. Commisso said the process was already started when they came to council. Community meetings will be held on the strategic plan next month.
