NORTH BATTLEFORD — One of the family members of missing North Battleford woman Ashley Morin is organizing a candlelight vigil for area Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) to raise awareness.
The event will take place on May 5 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Central Park, located outside the North Battleford library.
Organizer Angela Odgers, a cousin of Morin, is planning the event.
"For me, it's personal because my cousin is still missing, Ashley Morin," she said. "But the thing is, I do this because I see the faces of these people that are going through this. All these families from around our area alone are going through [having] a missing or murdered family member."
Odgers said the community needs answers about what happened to people’s loved ones.
"I can tell you right now, there's a ton of people that know what happened to my cousin in this community," she said. "They're choosing not to speak up. And until they do, what's been happening in our community, it's never going to end."
Odgers said the Battlefords has a problem with the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
"Every day you hear of someone missing, and then down the road they've been murdered," she said. "The changes that I've seen safety-wise in our community is crazy, because it's not safe anymore."
Odgers hopes the candlelight vigil will be an opportunity to raise awareness of all the missing and murdered Indigenous people in the Battlefords area.
"I'm just giving the families an opportunity to gather to support each other," she said. "It's for support, to help these people get through it."
