A national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country will make a stop in Saskatoon on Monday.

The inquiry will allow the families affected by unsolved murder and missing cases to testify and tell their stories of loss and tragedy. Agnes Woodward is a part of one of the families registered to testify next week. The body of her aunt Eleanor ‘Laney; Theresa Ewenin was found on the outskirts of Calgary after she was ejected from a vehicle and died of exposure to freezing conditions on February 4th, 1982.

“It was a bitterly cold night, Woodward said in a Facebook post.

“The snow tells her story of her last moments on this earth. One can see where a car pulled in to a lonely very light traveled road on the outskirts of Calgary. The struggle that occurred from the driver and Laney being pulled from the back seat shows in the scuffle markings on the freshly fallen snow.”

No one has been charged in relation to the death of Ewenin. In an interview with CTV News on Friday, Woodward said her aunt’s death was ‘barely investigated.’ Woodward also said her mom, including her mom’s siblings, were all taken from their families during in the 60s Scoop.

“We just weren’t given the same chance everyone else was and with the inquiry it gives us a voice and a new platform,” Woodward said.

“For me it feels like a chance to be heard, for our people to be heard, our family to tell the story and for my mom to stand there and say her sister's life mattered and that they knew justice was not likely to happen."

Opening ceremonies for the inquiry in Saskatoon will begin Monday at the Sheraton Cavalier Hotel. Hearings will begin on Tuesday and run until at least Thursday.

Since the inquiry was launched in Sept. 2016, it has travelled the country gathering information, hearing from families, communities, experts, and institutions.

The mandate of the inquiry is to examine and report on the underlying and systemic factors that contribute to violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

The government has dedicated $53.8 million for the inquiry. The commissioners say the final report will include: findings on the systemic and underlying causes of violence against Indigenous women and girls, and actions to address this violence; policies and practices to reduce violence; and ways to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

 

With files from Rachel Aiello, Ottawa News Bureau Online Producer for CTV News