The family of Misty Potts sing an honour song before sharing the story of her disappearance. Photo by Joel Willick
“It’s a sadness that never leaves you.”
That was one of the comments from a woman testifying at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls hearings in Saskatoon Thursday morning.
Misty Potts went missing in 2015 on a highway near Alexis First Nation in Alberta, northwest of Edmonton.
Eva Potts, Misty’s sister, and other members of the family, shared their story with an inquiry commissioner this morning. They described Misty as a driven woman, who lived the traditional Indigenous way of life. She was working toward a PhD in education before she went missing.
Eva Potts says her sister did suffer from substance abuse, but says she doesn’t want that to define who she was.
“It was just supposed to be a rough time in her life, and she came back home and was heading to rehab. She just left the house to go to the store and that was the last time we saw her,” said Eva Potts through tears. “She was going to rehab, and I was excited because I was supposed to be getting my sister back.”
Misty’s family claims the police were slow to react in her case. They are hoping the inquiry will help address what they say are drug abuse problems on reserves.
Misty Potts has never been found.
Also sharing on Thursday was the family of 23-year-old Maxine Wapass, who went missing from Saskatoon in 2001. Maxine’s sister Marilyn Wapass says she never received justice for her death.
“It’s a sadness that never leaves you,” she told the inquiry.
Wapass’ body was found and identified in a shallow grave near Asquith in 2002, almost a year after she went missing. Her boyfriend was charged with manslaughter, but was found not guilty after a judge ruled his confession not admissible in court.
Marilyn Wapass shared with the inquiry the feeling of what it was like to see the man she believed to have killed her sister walk free.
“He let him go free. How did that happen? How does someone who confesses get to go free?” she asked the inquiry with tears in her eyes. “Who’s going to be accountable? Where’s my justice?”
Thursday is the last day of hearings in Saskatoon, the only stop in Saskatchewan.
It is expected that over 60 families will have shared their stories with the inquiry commissioners, with several more providing official statements.
There have been reports on requests for the inquiry to undertake a statement hearing trip in northern Saskatchewan to gather stories from the region.
However, no word yet on if this is a possibility.