Susan Klassen and Miranda Peters were both strangled to death in Whitehorse, Yukon by their male partners. Rachael Lewis organized a public protest that was held on the bank of the Yukon River to protest violence against women, and the lenient sentences handed down in both trials. A banner was signed, which was presented in the House of Commons by Yukon MP, Louise Hardy. Rachael wrote the following story to encourage people to voice their concerns to Government officials who are responsible for changes to the justice system.

 

Not so long ago, in a vast Forest, at the foot of the Mountains, there flowed a Great River. And by this River was a Gathering Place for many People.

All the People who lived there believed it to be a Special Place and for this reason it was here they chose to live together, to care for one another, and to raise their families.

One night in this place when all of the People were sleeping, the Moon was looking down and noticed that there was woman and a girl child alone in the forest.

The Moon came down to put the woman and the girl child to sleep but then she saw that they were Spirits with many tears in their eyes. She asked the Spirits why they were weeping but they only shook their heads and held their hands to their throats.

The Moon saw that the Spirits could not speak for themselves and because she wanted to know why the Spirits were weeping, she decided to help them. Using her magic she took the Spirit Woman and the Spirit Girl-Child into the dreams of the children, and the men, and the women who were sleeping.

All of the People saw in this dream, the Spirits with the tears in their eyes, and that their throats were red and swollen.

The Spirit Woman spoke first and said, "I am your wife and your sister and my life was taken from me and my voice was stolen and I am weeping as no one will speak for me and ask for my life back."

The Spirit Girl-Child spoke second and said "I am your child and your daughter and my life was taken from me and my voice was stolen and I am weeping as no one will speak for me and ask for my life back."

The Moon heard the words of the Spirits as they spoke in the Peoples’ dreams and in her great sadness for them she told the People to remember the dream.

The next morning when the People woke they gathered together by the Great River and shook their heads in shame and cried out that someone had stolen the lives and voices of their daughters and their sisters.

The People stayed by the Great River all day and cried out louder and louder for whoever had stolen these lives and these voices to return them. The People of this place cried out that it was no longer a Special Place to live in this vast Forest beneath the Mountains by this Great River.

The voices of the People grew, and grew, and grew so loud that the Great River heard them and spoke to them.

The River said "I have seen you living in this place and I know you care for this place. I have heard you ask for the lives and voices that have been stolen from the Spirit Woman and the Spirit Girl-Child who were weeping in the Forest."

"I will do this for you. I will take your message to my friend the Tide and I will ask the Tide to take your message to the Ocean. The Ocean is the cradle of life and if anyone can return the lives and voices to the Spirit Woman and the Spirit Girl-Child the Ocean can."

"You must do something more than this though," said the River. "Tomorrow you must stop all else that you would do, and go and see all of the People, in all of the gathering places, by all of the Rivers, for the Ocean is so big it may not hear just my message and just my voice."

The People of the Special Gathering Place agreed to do this and the next day all of the People in all of the places stopped what they were doing and went to their Rivers to ask the Ocean for the stolen lives and voices of the Spirit Woman and the Spirit Girl-Child.

The voices of all of the People, by all of the Rivers, cried so loud that the Ocean heard them and spoke " It is a great thing you ask, for once a life has been taken and a voice has been stolen it can never be found. I can only create new lives and voices for these Spirits and there is only one way I can do this."

The People were all silent and listened.

The Ocean said " You must each give me a piece of your life and a piece of your voice and only if I have these parts from all of you can I make the Spirit Woman and the Spirit Girl-Child a new life and new voice." Will you do this?"

And the People knew what they would do.

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