Lisa Marie Young disappeared 19 years ago in Nanaimo and has never been found.
On Saturday, the community will march to keep her memory alive.
The event starts at noon at the Nanaimo RCMP station, where Mounties will hold a press conference about Young’s case, and then proceed to Maffeo Sutton Park, where there will be speeches and a performance by Butterflies in Spirit.
Young’s grandfather, Chief Moses Martin of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, and Judith Sayers, president of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council, will be speaking at the event along with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog, MLA Sheila Malcolmson and MP Paul Manly.
Young was last seen leaving a Nanaimo nightclub early on June 30, 2002.
Marlene Joanne Young — Lisa’s mother — organized the march until her death in 2017.
According to figures from the federal government, Indigenous women in Canada accounted for nine per cent of female homicides in 1980 and 21 per cent in 2014. The homicide rate for Indigenous women was close to six times higher than that for non-Indigenous women.
