SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A homeless woman helped add more than 50 names to a petition, because the human rights group behind it is shining a spotlight on the plight of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Sophie Thrasher-Bernhardt, right, a homeless woman who spent a week earlier this month circulating a petition for Amnesty International, and Denise McKee, executive director for the NWT Disabilities Council, spent time talking about the plight of indigenous women living on the street at the day shelter on Friday. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

Sophie Thrasher-Bernhardt, 51, was born in Inuvik and is the daughter of former Inuvik mayor Margaret Thrasher, but now she lives on the streets of Yellowknife.

Thrasher-Bernhardt said she was compelled to help circulate the Write for Rights petition - an Amnesty International program asking citizens to write governments demanding action on many causes - because one of its Canada-based projects, Stolen Sisters, addresses missing and murdered indigenous women.

After her now ex-husband left her and moved to Edmonton, Thrasher-Bernhardt said she began having problems with alcohol.

"I've been here since 1999," said Thrasher-Bernhardt. "Since they took my children away."

Nowadays, she said, she spends cold nights sleeping in stairwells and frequents the city's day shelter. She said during her time on the streets she has been raped, she has been beaten and she hasn't seen her 28-year-old son for a long time.

Women on the street face constant hardship, says Thrasher-Bernhardt, and the matter needs greater attention from the federal government, she said while speaking to Yellowknifer in the administrative office at the day shelter.

"There are so many women that sleep in the stairwells," she said. "They get raped. They get held down. Thank God for this place, because they look out for us here."

50 to 100 sleep on Yk's streets

Denise McKee, executive director of the NWT Disabilities Council, said between 50 and 100 people sleep on city streets every night.

"I've not met a (homeless) person without a story of trauma," said McKee.

Document shines light on plight

Through the Stolen Sisters project, Amnesty International aims to focus public attention on a RCMP report, released in May 2014, confirming 1,017 indigenous females were murdered between 1980 and 2012, while more than 105 remain missing.

The petition, which Thrasher-Bernhardt passed around at the shelter and to the passers-by downtown, supports a litany of causes championed by the human rights group, and let people know about a rally -held Dec. 6 at Javaroma - hosted by Nancy Trotter and Metslal Mesgun, local members of Amnesty International.

The duo spent the afternoon talking to anyone who would listen about their many causes, with special focus on a petition for the welfare of Huseyincan Celil, a Chinese-born Canadian man jailed in China on terrorism charges.

Celil's welfare is one of many concerns raised by the group, said Trotter. The Yellowknife activists circulated paperwork outlining the alleged-violent treatment of peaceful protesters in Guatemala, in 2013, as well as papers demanding the release of blogger Raif Badawi - charged with "insulting Islam" in Saudi Arabia in June 2012, and a call for justice for the victims of a toxic-gas leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984. Trotter said the group asks concerned citizens to write letters to governments and corporations, and show their faces at rallies in order to spread the word about the human rights group's causes.

Fadil Memedi, owner of Javaroma, said hosting the Amnesty International members made him feel good.

"This is a community place," he said. "It's a good thing. We let anyone who wants to spread the word about something set up here."

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