MMIWG testimony focuses on breaking cycle of violence

Sylvia Lyall is pictured in this undated photo with her mother Nipisha at the family’s cabin in Taloyoak. Lyall was killed in Iqaluit in 2004. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

RANKIN INLET—The niece of a murdered Nunavut woman told the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls that it should make room to hear from more Indigenous men.

Janet Brewster of Iqaluit testified about the 2004 murder of her aunt, Sylvia Lyall.

Lyall, 41, was found strangled to death in her Iqaluit apartment in June 2004. Her long-time partner Pat Anablak was initially charged with her first-degree murder, but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received a 15-year sentence.

“Inuit men are killing Inuit women,” Brewster told the commission on Thursday, Feb. 22, during the final day of public hearings in Rankin Inlet.

“The reason that is happening is that we’re not supporting these Inuit men,” she said.

“You should be talking to and hearing from those men, who’ve been convicted, who are serving time, and ask them to participate. To find out what trauma led them to that abuse.”

Brewster was joined at the commission by three of Lyall’s children. One of them, Jayko Ritchie, was only nine years old when his mother died.

Ritchie admitted that he himself had been abusive to women in his adult life.

“No matter who you are or what you’re doing, this kind of thing always has a negative impact on everyone around it,” he told the commission.

“What Patrick Anablak has done to my mother has impacted me in the worst way. Because for a little while, I became that type of person.”

Ritchie said he was charged with assault against an ex-partner. The time he sat in a jail cell following the incident made him realize he had become a part of a cycle of violence.

“Not a day goes by where I’m not missing my mother,” Richie said, encouraging others to speak out about abuse in their own lives.

In fact, the national inquiry made the decision last year to include the testimony of boys and men as part of its hearings, though its mandate remains uncovering the systemic forms of violence experienced by Indigenous women and girls.

Brewster also called on governments and the education system to reflect the experience of many Nunavummiut, for whom violence and abuse is a reality.

“An education system that envelopes children in that right, to move through and be supported through their very real lived experiences, could have a very good impact on breaking the cycle of violence, of abuse,” she said.

She listed a number of ways government agencies handled Lyall’s death that added to her family’s burden at the time: the abruptness with which she was asked to identify her aunt’s body or how she was asked to pay for Lyall’s body to be repatriated to her home community of Taloyoak.

“We don’t come to this equipped to understand all the ins and out, so polices should be reflective of that … so that they don’t trigger more trauma.”

The inquiry’s hearings in Rankin Inlet wrap up Feb. 22. Its toll-free support line is open 24 hours a day at 1-844-413-6649.