Faces Of Our Fallen Sisters

Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women of Ontario

The number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls in Canada is disproportionately high. The Native Women's Association of Canada’s research indicates that, between 2000 and 2008, Aboriginal women and girls represented approximately 10% of all female homicides in Canada. However, Aboriginal women make up only 3% of the female population.

Nearly half of murder cases in NWAC’s database remain unsolved. NWAC has found that only 53% of murder cases involving Aboriginal women and girls have led to charges of homicide. This is dramatically different from the national clearance rate for homicides in Canada, which was last reported as 84% (Statistics Canada 2005, p.10). While a small number of cases in NWAC’s database have been “cleared” by the suicide of the offender or charges other than homicide, 40% of the cases remain unsolved.

Alissa Martin-Travers, 5
Murdered in Cornwall in 2008

Katelynn Sampson, 7
Beaten to death by her legal guardians in Toronto in 2008

Jordina Skunk
Found frozen to death in Fort Severin First Nation in 2008

Carol Lou Viau, 41
Missing from Thunder Bay in 1985

Cheyenne Fox, 20
"Fell" from 24th floor of a Don Mills condo in 2000
Family claims it was murder, not suicide

Denise Katherine Bourdeau, 39
Murdered in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2009

Kelly Morrisseau, 27 and 7 months pregnant
Murdered in Ottawa in 2006

Jennifer Stewart
Stabbed to death in Ottawa in 2010

Sandra Johnson, 18
Murdered in Thunder Bay in 1992

Shelley Joseph, 43
Stabbed to death in Hamilton in 2004

Spring Phillips, 26
Murdered in Toronto in 2009

Tashina Cheyenne Vaughn General, 21
Murdered along with her unborn child at Six Nations in 2008

Terra Gardner, 26
Killed by a train in Toronto in 2013

Sonya Nadine Mae, 31
Found dead near Iona in 1994

No More Silence aims to develop an inter/national network to support the work being done by activists, academics, researchers, agencies and communities to stop the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women. 

The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) is founded on the collective goal to enhance, promote, and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of First Nations and Métis women within First Nation, Métis and Canadian societies. As a national organization representing Aboriginal women since 1974, NWAC’s mandate is to achieve equality for all Aboriginal women in Canada. NWAC is actively involved with partner organizations across the globe towards this goal, including the United Nations and Amnesty International to end the discrimination against Indigenous women.