Calls continue for improved Labrador search and rescue

Protests calling for improved search and rescue in Labrador continue two months after the death ofBurton Winters, 14,on the sea ice outside Makkovik.

Wednesday afternoon about a hundred protestors gathered outside the offices of MP Peter Penashue and MHA Keith Russell, demanding that the Department of National Defence improve its readiness to respond to calls for help in Labrador.

They want answers after the CBC's Fifth Estate revealed last week that weathershould not havekept DND helicopters from searching the Makkovik area after Winters was reported missing on Jan. 29. His body was recovered on Feb.1.

Edna Winters is Burton Winters' grandmother.

She said the Department of National Defence should have done more.

"They didn't come when they should have. We can't change that right now but we could change it for someone else," she told CBC News.

People at the protest said they want an independent inquiry to provide more answers about what happened.

Chris Montague is the president of the NunatuKavut Mtis group.

He said new information in the CBC's Fifth Estate report last week has people fired up.

"The Fifth Estate report has galvanized everybody," Montague said."We're able to feel it more, to see it more, it brings it more hope.It's more poignant than it's ever been before.I think it's rallying the people."

The protesters are demanding to know whyDND didn't respond for more than 30 hours after Winters went missing.