Simons: Secrecy can’t solve crisis of missing, murdered aboriginal women – Edmonton Journal

January 12, 2015

EDMONTON – Her name was Freda Goodrunning. She was 35 when she died last June, her body dumped in a storage shed behind a closed-down bar formerly known as the Tilted Kilt, on Stony Plain Road near 174th Street.

Her murder didn’t generate a lot of headlines. But her tragic story helps illustrate the challenges we face in confronting Canada’s crisis of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Freda was born on the Sunchild First Nation, northwest of Rocky Mountain House. According to family members, she was a mother of six children, the eldest born when Goodrunning was 19 or 20. She battled a lot of demons. She was addicted to drugs and alcohol. She also had a history of relationships with violent, controlling men. Eventually, all her children were taken into the permanent care of the province. She’d spent her last four years homeless, living on Edmonton streets.

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