Remembering those who were robbed from their Mother’s Day

John Fox and Patricia Watts with security guards in front of Anduhyaun Shelter, Toronto, May 10.
John Fox and Patricia Watts with security guards in front of Anduhyaun Shelter, Toronto, May 10.

By Barb Nahwegahbow

TORONTO – Mother’s Day was a sombre occasion for John Fox. It was a day to remember his daughter, the late Cheyenne Fox and all the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) who were mothers and grandmothers. “Celebrating and being honoured as mothers, they were robbed of that,” said Fox, citizen of Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve.

Fox led a group of supporters to protest outside Anduhyaun, a Toronto shelter for Aboriginal women. In August 2012, Fox’s daughter was staying there when she was sexually assaulted in the shelter’s backyard. Nine months later, 20-year old Cheyenne Fox died after a fall from a 24th floor balcony. While the Toronto police ruled her death a suicide, Fox believes it was murder. Cheyenne was the mother of a 2-year old son.

Fox said the sexual assault was recorded on the shelter’s closed circuit cameras. Based on this, the police charged the alleged attacker. The judge for the preliminary hearings in 2014 viewed the tapes and subsequently ruled there was sufficient evidence to go to trial. The trial is scheduled to start September this year.

Fox alleges that Anduhyaun Shelter failed his daughter and said he filed a lawsuit against the shelter based on this a couple of weeks ago. “It’s supposed to be a safe place for our women,” he said. “I’m frustrated. It comes down to this. The shelter failed my daughter all the way around.”

Upon arrival at the shelter on Mother’s Day, the group was met with two security guards from a private firm. “Where were the security guards when my daughter was being assaulted?” said Fox. There were a couple of tense moments, once when Fox went onto the property, and the second when MMIW advocate Patricia Watts from Wabigoon Lake First Nation did the same. Watts climbed onto the shelter’s lawn to pray and offer tobacco. When the security guards demanded she get off the property, Watts said would do so after she finished her prayer.

Standing on the sidewalk outside Anduhyaun, Fox addressed the shelter’s management who stayed behind closed doors. “This is not a safe place for our women. We’re not going to allow you to hide anymore, there’s going to be a lot more of these activities going on until you’re shut down or you’re accountable or your board completely resigns.”

Nationally known MMIW activist Gladys Radek travelled from Orillia to support Fox. She co-founded Walk4Justice  when her 22-year old niece Tamara Chipman disappeared in 2005.

Speaking to a passerby who was drawn by the sound of the drumming, Radek told her, “There’s a lot of motherless children,” and explained what happened to Cheyenne Fox. “Somebody’s gotta bring attention to it, get a public inquiry. We’ve been asking for it for the last decade. It should be a priority. We’re lifegivers.”