Jennifer Catcheway's mom blasts RCMP at MMIW forum

BerniceCatchewaysays she has given up on the RCMP's efforts to find her missing daughter, Jennifer.

"We stopped relying onRCMP, on officials.They say 'We're with you, we're standing with you.' Well, I don't see them standing with us," an emotional CatchewaysaidWednesday night during a town hall-style public forum on missing and murdered Indigenous women.

"I never get a call from theRCMP. I never got a call from who'son her case, Jennifer's case, the detective. Nobody calls me."

MMIW families were given the chanceWednesday night to address the RCMP directly at the forum, hosted by CBC's The Current.

Catcheway, whosedaughter disappeared in 2008 at the age of 18, called for more help and better communication between RCMP investigators and families in front of the packed houseat the University of Winnipeg'sEckhardt Gramatt Hall.

• The case of Jennifer Leigh Catcheway
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Catchewayand her husband have worked nonstop in the eight years since Jennifer's disappearance, searchingmarshes, lakes, swamps and rivers across Manitoba.

They've also excavated three dumps, she said, and taken statements on videotape from people they hope might know something about what happened.

• Jennifer Catcheway's family searching landfill and Dakota Tipi yards

Despite their efforts and a belief the RCMP were keeping them in the loop, Catcheway said she and her husband learned from TV news, not from an investigator, that police had passed her daughter's case on to the homicide unit.

"Every time I ask a question they say 'It's under investigation, I can't talk about it.' Well, we need to talk. We need to communicate," Catcheway said.

As she railed against the lack of help on Wednesday, an RCMP superintendent was just a few rows ahead of her in the theatre.

• The Current hosts MMIW forum in Winnipeg

Supt. Jeanette Theisen said the investigation is "extremely active" and the team follows up on all the information Catcheway and her husband bring in.

When Jenniferwent missing, Catcheway was told by the RCMP officer she reported it to that she should give it a week, becauseJennifer was probably just on a drunk bender.

In the days following, as the family searched, Wilfred Catcheway, Jennifer's father, said there were just over a dozen searchers.

"I'm not racist, but a white girl went missing in the same community, Portage la Prairie 1,500 came out. So what is the problem with society? Is it power?" Wilfred Catchewaysaid.

"What does the police force have in place to stop racism? What evidence do you haveto put a stop to it since eight years ago?"

Theisen said the RCMPis making efforts to address racism and make officers aware of and accountable for their actions. She asked anybody who felt they'd experienced racism to come forward and report it.

"It's like everything else, we need the community to help us," she said.

Police chief on MMIW, racism in police force

Winnipeg's new police chief Danny Smyth spoke publicly for the first time about the MMIW cases.

The key to solving themand preventing more women and girls from being exploited is to work closely with the Indigenous community, he said.

"It's important for us to establish relationships in the community," Smyth said. "Do a lot of outreach work in the community. And we've begun to do that, we've established a counter exploitation unit."

He also responded to allegations of racism within the police force and questions about what the WPS is doing to combat it.

"I think it's important that we recognize that there can be systemic racism in an organization," he said.

"Certainly in our organization we take steps to try to train our members to be more sensitive to their own biases and to really listen to people when they're telling you something that's out of the ordinary."

The public forum was held aspart of a series of similar events across the country for The Current's ongoing coverage of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

Attendees also had the chance to try outa virtual reality documentary about the Highway of Tears.

The event was taped live and will be broadcast on CBC Radio One on Wednesday, Dec. 7.