‘It’s never over’: Community gathers, braces for a serial killer’s sentencing hearing

APTN News: For the past two decades, Sandra Delaronde has been an advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and Two-Spirit people.

Now she’s leading a committee called Gganwenimaanaanig, in English it means, We Take Care of Them All. The committee is tasked with holding governments and Canadians accountable when it comes to implementing the 231 calls to justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Part of her role is helping others find their voice, including at an August evening at the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre in Winnipeg’s North End where a small group of support workers discuss the impact of the trial of convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki.

Delaronde said getting community input is important for court and public records.

“When we have a loss, it isn’t just one person or one family that’s injured,” Delaronde said, “It’s the whole community that experiences the injury.”

On July 11, Skibicki, 37, was found guilty of four First Degree murder charges in the brutal killings of Rebecca Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, Marcedes Myran, 26 and the yet to be identified person given the name Mashkode Bizihiki’ikwe or Buffalo Woman from First Nations leaders.

While delivering his oral summary, Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said he would reserve sentencing so that family members, friends and the community could prepare impact statements if they chose to.

“It’s a small step, you know, it means that the courts are listening to the community,” said Delaronde. “Even in Justice Joyal’s summary he talked about the greater issue of MMIWG, however, he just had to consider the evidence that was before him,”

Delaronde noted about how this particular case was different compared to past verdicts where non-Indigenous men were on trial for killing Indigenous women in Winnipeg.

Normally, these support workers put the needs of families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls first, but on this night, it’s about them.

Everyone in this sharing circle knows of a woman or girl who’s gone missing or murdered from their family and their community.

‘For the families, it’s not ever going to be over’

Stanley La Pierre is the lone male in attendance. He’s used to it. On days like this one, he questions where his peers are.

“We have many, many of these gatherings, where are our males? Where are our healthy males,” La Pierre said.

La Pierre is the partner to Thelma Morrisseau, a well-known and respected woman in the Indigenous community in Manitoba.

He’s been helping families since May 2022 when Skibicki was first charged, after the partial remains of Contois were found in garbage bins.

“For the families, it’s not ever going to be over,” he said about the loss of their loved ones. “They are going to go to bed at Christmas Eve or birthdays, Mother’s Day and they are going to think about their loved one they have lost.

“So it’s never over. grieving, you can never ever tell someone how to grieve. there’s no book on grieving.”

La Pierre said he’s exhausted but doesn’t plan on leaving the families any time soon. He said he’ll be beside them as the Brady Landfill search begins this October.

“It aged me because i had so many different emotions,” La Pierre said about how the Skibick trial affected him personally.

A man who lives by Midewiwin law, which is Anishinaabe teachings, said he has battled with his own thoughts.

“Some (of) those emotions were scary emotions,” he said, “I thought I had healed from those emotions years gone by but they surfaced when that individual was walking in that courtroom each and every day.”

‘I am putting them into visuals the best way I can’

Roxanne Greene of Shoal Lake 40, a small community near the Manitoba, Ontario border, is the graphic illustrator who is helping to gather the impact statements for Skibicki’s sentencing hearing on August 28.

“I am putting them into visuals the best way I can that shows the many emotions and feelings that I’ve been hearing,” Greene said.

She said before taking on this sacred responsibility, she went into ceremony and prayed for guidance.

Green said there will be five graphic boards from five different sessions- including two from Winnipeg, two from northern Manitoba in The Pas and Thompson and one from Brandon.

Greene reflected on the first board made in Winnipeg during the first session back on July 21, nearly two weeks after Skibicki was convicted.

“The title of that one is called It’s a Horror Story, but it’s a true story and there is an Eagle depicted in the picture with the wing branching up high and that’s where the Elders are at the top giving the community the supports they need so they are able to share these statements with all of us.” Greene said.

This latest session came just days after the news of the discovery of Mackenzie Trottier in the Saskatoon Landfill.

“Especially in hearing about the news of the Saskatoon landfill search and it resulted in them finding the young woman that was missing gives the community there a sense of hope for these women,” Greene said.

The graphic illustrations will be added to a report written by Delaronde. They will be shown in court during Skibicki’s sentencing hearing on Aug 28.