Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Vancouver on Saturday after a Manitoba jury acquitted the man on trial for 15-year-old Tina Fontaine's murder.
Protestors gathered at noon on Hamilton Street and shovelled snow from the sidewalk before assembling to listen to local Indigenous activists speak.
"We hope to show the justice system that, across Canada, we will not be silent," organizer Jaye Simpson told CTV News. "We will be loud about it. We demand justice for Tina Fontaine."
Tina, an Indigenous girl from the Sagkeeng First Nation, was just 15 years old when her body was found wrapped in a duvet and weighed down with rocks in Winnipeg's Red River in August 2014.
Her death ignited renewed calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
Raymond Cormier, 56, was charged with her murder. But a jury in Winnipeg acquitted him on Thursday.
The verdict garnered swift reaction from Indigenous leaders decrying the systems, including child welfare and law enforcement, that failed Tina.
The rally in Vancouver was one of many held across the country.
Audrey Siegl, a Musqueam writer and activist, told Vancouver rally-goers they need to stay steady and stand united.
"I'm calling on not just Indigenous people. I need every person … Get your men in check," she said. "I'm calling on you to save our women and save our babies."
Two weeks prior, Siegl spoke from the same podium over another young Indigenous person's murder trial that ended in acquittal. Colten Boushie, 22, was shot after driving onto a farm in Saskatchewan. The farm's owner and man who fired the gun, Gerald Stanley, was also acquitted.
The Coalition on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in BC issued a press release expressing sorrow over Tina's death and calling for accountability.
"The calls of 'no justice, no peace' are sounding as Indigenous people mourn yet another failing of this country and its cruel colonial systems," it said.
At the Vancouver demonstration, people carried signs demanding justice for Tina and saying Canada is failing.