MEMBERTOU, N.S. — Ryan Gould’s nine-year-old daughter recently asked him when she would be able walk to Tim Hortons in Membertou by herself — his response was heartbreaking.
“I hesitated, and it really broke my heart to have to tell her that there probably never will be a day where I can trust any of my daughters leaving the house that I don’t worry about them and their well-being,” said Gould, a father of five girls.
“I told her that it isn’t safe for her — I’m very honest with my daughter — it isn’t safe for my girlfriend, it isn’t safe for my mother, it’s a very unsafe world — not to really darken her spirits — but I want her to be aware of the seriousness of the issue.”
Gould was among close to 80 people, including Chief Terry Paul, who attended an awareness walk in Membertou in solidarity for justice for Cassidy Bernard as well as missing and murdered Indigenous women and children on Friday.
The walk began at Maupeltuewey Kina’matno’kuom school, before finishing at the Membertou Heritage Park.
“It’s our Unama'ki communities, our Mi’kmaq communities standing up for justice for Cassidy and justice for all missing and murdered Indigenous women all across the nation,” said Annie Bernard-Daisley, cousin of Cassidy Bernard.
Cassidy Bernard, 22, was found dead in her We’koqma’q home shortly after 11 a.m. on Oct. 24.
RCMP continue to investigate, but don’t believe it was a “random act.”
With no leads in the case, the We’koqma’q council offered a $100,000 reward on Nov. 20 for information related to the death of Bernard.
Bernard-Daisley said with the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women, it’s a cause for concern
“I’m a mother of three young daughters … I have nieces and I have cousins and we lost one of our cousins through this,” she said. “Everyone should be worried, not just me.”
Bernard-Daisley is worried about her children.
“Every Indigenous mother should be worried for their children with the stats that we have in Canada because as a national average we have one in six that will go missing and murdered — that’s not made up, that’s reality.”
A number of walks have recently been held across Cape Breton to bring justice for Cassidy Bernard and raise awareness to missing and murdered Indigenous women.
“We’re talking to Justin Trudeau, we’re talking to all the elected officials across Canada,” said Bernard-Daisley. “A solution to solve this will start as one solid movement, we all have to work together to fix this problem.”
The RCMP continue to ask the public for help in the Bernard case.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Waycobah RCMP at 902-756-3371 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
jeremy.fraser@cbpost.com
Twitter: @CBPost_Jeremy
