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Valerie Taliman: Series on crimes against Native women, girls
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Filed Under: First Nations | National

"One day after memorializing the lost lives of 600 Native women, victims of a notorious sex predator spoke for the first time in front of the British Columbia Provincial Court. Under a light rain, they stood among families and elders, demonstrating at a bail hearing against a man they call a monster.

Tearful and angry, five young First Nations women held signs and photos of Martin Tremblay, 45, who was charged in 2003 with 18 counts of sexual assault of drugging, raping and filming five unconscious Native girls, ages 13 to 15. Tremblay served little more than a year in jail, and soon returned to the Downtown Eastside to prey on more victims, including two teenagers who died last October after partying in his Richmond, B.C. home.

The young women on the steps of the courthouse were five of Tremblay’s new and unknown victims, scared but determined to share their harrowing stories and demand that he not be released from jail. They came forward at the urging of Sister Watch, a joint effort by the Vancouver Police ­and a coalition of women’s groups that is asking victims to report new information about assaults linked to Tremblay and other violent drug dealers.

Among those supporting the young victims were Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Kelvin Bee and his family, who traveled from interior British Columbia seeking justice for his niece, Kayla Lalonde, 16, the young woman who died in Tremblay’s home last fall from a drug overdose. Bee brought his family of young singers, their hand drums, and traditional songs to the courthouse where they sang for several hours, standing in support of the women.

One young man stood out with his silent vigilance, quietly holding a photo of Tremblay. “He killed my girlfriend,” said Stephen Cain, 20, speaking of 17-year-old Martha Jackson Hernandez. “She was partying with her friend, Kayla, at Tremblay’s house and then they both turned up dead. He should be in jail on murder charges.”"

Get the Story:
Rounding Up the Predators (Indian Country Today 3/16)

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