Family says at hearings that a ‘white-passing’ appearance alters police reaction
MEMBERTOU, N.S. — Family members of a murdered Inuk woman said Monday that merely appearing to be white often heightens police and public interest in a crime or missing person case involving an aboriginal person.
Loretta Saunders’ sister Delilah Saunders and their mother Meriam made the comments as they described the 26-year-old woman’s life and violent death — and the lessons her activism has sparked in their own lives.
They were speaking during the first of three days of hearings being held by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton.
Saunders’ body was found at the side of a New Brunswick highway in a bag in February 2014, leading to murder convictions against Halifax residents Blake Leggette and his girlfriend Victoria Henneberry.