Leading Writers Join February 15 Event to Demand Charges Be Dropped Against Indigenous Author Dawn Walker
Walker, a Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour nominee (for The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour) faces decades in prison if convicted of a mountain of charges laid against her for trying to save herself and her child from abuse in August, 2022.
The event, “Writers Read to Free Dawn Walker: Drop ALL the Charges,” features Eden Robinson, Farzana Doctor, Meaghan Strimas, Monia Mazigh, Richard Van Camp, Duncan Mercredi, and Dawn Walker herself.
“Dawn needs to be freed and charges dropped,” explains Matthew Behrens of the group Women Who Choose to Live, which is organizing the event. “Dawn's situation reflects a systematic failure to support her when she was most in need. Dawn has not failed anyone; the system has failed her as it does so often with Indigenous women, women of colour and LGBTQIA2S+.”
Eden Robinson, the author of Monkey Beach, Son of a Trickster, Trickster Drift, and Return of the Trickster, says she is joining the February 15 event because “Dawn is one of the most talented comedic writers I've read. Although I don't know her personally, I'm praying hard for her and her child. My heart goes out to her. I've witnessed so much violence against Indigenous women and it is so rare to get justice or even help. Big hugs, Dawn."
It’s a sentiment shared by Winnipeg Poet Laureate Duncan Mercredi (Spirit of the Wolf: Raise Your Voice and The Duke of Windsor: Wolf Sings the Blues) who declared: "When one knows someone is being abused, not just by someone she was close to until they showed their truth, and is also being abused by the system that was supposed to protect her, we must raise our fists and voices as one to stand beside her, not behind her."
“Important to Stand With Dawn”
Farzana Doctor (author of You Still Look The Same, Seven, Stealing Nasreen), notes: "It's important for the writing community to be in solidarity with Dawn. We know that our 'legal' system treats survivors of violence and Indigenous communities with violence. Dawn must not be persecuted for attempting to protect herself and her child.”
For Richard Van Camp, it’s also personal. A proud Tlicho Dene from Fort Smith, NWT and author of 27 books in 27 years, he says “I've been a friend and fan of Dawn's for years now and I stand with her in support and friendship.”
Monia Mazigh, author of Hope and Despair: My Struggle to Free My Husband Maher Arar, Mirrors and Mirages, and Hope Has Two Daughters, writes: "As an author and human rights activist I can't remain silent with regards to what happened to Dawn Walker. Going after the most vulnerable in our society is morally wrong. Dawn needs to be protected not prosecuted."
Dawn Walker’s case has reverberated throughout writing circles, the community of over-worked front-line workers seeking to end male violence against women, and advocates who have seen the damage caused by a dangerously deficient family court system that all too often brushes aside – even disappears – the very clear evidence of male violence against women and kids.
Meaghan Strimas, the program lead of Humber College's Bachelor of Creative & Professional Writing program and whose last book, Yes or Nope, was awarded the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, says “Like Dawn Walker, I am the mother of a young son. I know that if my child was ever threatened, I would do anything to protect him. I also know that the justice system routinely fails women and, in particular, Indigenous women.”
From an Oregon jail cell last August, Walker wrote: "I left Saskatoon because I feared for my safety and that of my son...[I was] failed by the Saskatchewan Justice system, the family law system and child protection. The police services did nothing to assist me. I reported my concerns to the child protection authorities and again nothing was done. I am fighting systems that continuously fail to protect me as an Indigenous woman and protect non-Indigenous men.”
And yet today Dawn Walker is subjected to strict house arrest with degrading, dehumanizing electronic monitoring, facing major criminal charges, for the alleged crime of trying to survive, to protect her child, as any loving and caring parent would do.
“Again and again, I have seen mothers, like Dawn, criminalized for their actions to try to protect themselves and their children, while fathers are not given so much as a slap on the wrist for abusing their children’s mother and are granted time with their children,” says
well-known feminist lawyer Pamela Cross, a respected expert on violence against women and the law. "Dawn, her child and all women and children who leave relationships in which they were being abused, deserve legal systems that understand the nuanced and gendered dynamics of intimate partner abuse if they are to have any hope of being able to move on to lives free from abuse.”
For further details, contact Women Who Choose to Live at (613) 300-9536 or tasc@web.ca
Women Who Choose to Live
Standing with Women Who are Punished for Surviving
2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052
Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7
