Myrna LaPlante. Photo courtesy of Native Women’s Association of Canada.
There was an impassioned plea this morning on behalf of all the families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
The plea came from Myrna LaPlante, whose 78-year-old aunt vanished without a trace 10 years ago. She begged anyone who has information on these cases to come forward, to end the suffering of families and to provide closure.
“We need your help, we need your love, we need your prayers, we need your involvement,” she said. “We need to come together as a country to end these disappearances.”
It was September of 2007 when Emily Osmond LaPlante vanished without a trace from her acreage on the north edge of the Kawacatoose First Nation, which is near Wynyard.
Speaking to the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, her niece, Myrna LaPlante, talked about the financial and emotional journey the family has been on for the last 10 years.
She says the RCMP searched for three days, then pretty much left it up to the family. Myrna says they have struggled for answers ever since.
“This is our life now, this is the life we live, we try to have a happy family, we try to live a somewhat normal life. Our family has been forever changed by these events,” she said.
LaPlante says she recently heard from the RCMP, who told her the case is still open. She says it was the first time she had heard from them in seven years.
The inquiry is conducting its hearings in Saskatoon this week. This is its only Saskatchewan stop.