Nina Courtepatte's mother calls for inquiry into murdered aboriginal women

Families and communities across Canada are againrenewing their calls for a national inquiryinto missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada following the death of SagkeengFirst Nationteenager TinaFontaine.

The 15-year-old girl was found dead in Winnipeg last weekend and police are treating her death as a homicide.

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For Edmonton'sPeacha Atkinson, mother of Nina Courtepatte, the news of Fontaine'sdeath has reminded her of her own loss.She gathered with other family members and with friends Saturday at atHawrelakPark for mutual support.

It brought back all the memories, flooding back, Atkinson said. When you found out, the phone calls, the sleepless nights, the wondering where she is.

Courtepatte, also young andaboriginal like Fontaine,was just 13yearsold in 2005 when she went missing.

Courtepatte had been lured from the West Edmonton Mall, sexually assaulted and killed.Herbattered body was found on a golf course west of Edmonton.In 2012,Michael Briscoe was found guilty of first-degree murder in relation to Courtepatte'sdeath.

This week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

We should not view this as a sociological phenomenon, we should view it as a crime, Harper said.

Atkinson told CBC News thatshe wasn't surprised by the prime ministers response.

The government, they dont care about us, she said. To the government, we are expendable. Why put money and resources into finding out how come were so expendable?

Melanie Omeniho, elected president of the Women of the Mtis Nation, has long been advocating for this type of inquiry.

The truth is there is a [social] process that has to be acknowledged as to why people think its acceptable that theyre aboriginal women and theyre just kids that have gone missing or young women that have gone missing and that they dont matter to society, Omeniho said.

While any inquiry would be too late for Courtepatte,Fontaine and other victims of crime, Atkinson hopes there will be a nationalinquiry soon so othermothers of aboriginal girls across the country wont have to grieve their daughters as she does.