Interview with filmmaker Jessica Yee about murdered and missing indigenous women

Program Title: Jessica Yee: Building a Highway of Hope
Description: INTRO SCRIPT: Indigenous women in Canada are five times more likely than other women to die as a result of violence. The official number of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in Canada since 1980 is 520. Of 520 women and girls, approximately two thirds were murdered, and about one-quarter are still missing. Indigenous grassroots activists and communities put the number of cases closer to 1800. The Native Women's Association of Canada points out that even working with the official number, 520, taken proportionately, that would equal about 18,000 murdered and missing women among Canada's white population. What is being done to stop the violence?

CHRY's Candace Mooers spoke with documentary filmmaker Jessica Yee (in Kensington Market) in Toronto about her video project, titled “Building a Highway of Hope.� Jessica Yee's film highlights ways that youth are acting to stop violence against indigenous women, children and men along the Highway of Tears (Yellowhead Trail 16) in British Columbia.

EXTRO SCRIPT FOR ONTARIO BROADCASTERS (OR WRITE YOUR OWN):

Jessica Yee's documentary “Building a Highway of Hope� will be screened at the Centre for Women's Studies in Education on Monday, 21 September, 2009, at 6:00 pm. The Centre is located at 252 Bloor Street West in Toronto. The screening is part of an art exhibit titled “Resisting Colonialism and Rebuilding Pathways to Hope.� Art submissions from youth are encouraged, and are due by September 1rst. For more information, contact either one of the event's co-presenters: That's the Centre for Women's Studies in Education, and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network in Toronto.

Host(s):
Featured Speakers/Guests: Jessica Yee, interviewed by Candace Mooers

Credits: Recorded for "News Now" on CHRY 105.5 FM, statistical information from dominionpaper.ca

Comments: You will need to voice the intro/extros when airing. Sample scripts provided.