'No justice, no peace' rings through downtown Hay River as people gather for Black Lives Matter

Chants of "no Justice, no peace!" rang out through downtown Hay River, N.W.T. Saturday afternoon.

A hundred people gathered in a parking lot behind the town's recreation centre to express their solidarity with Black, Indigenous and people of colour that have experienced racism in the N.W.T.

The rally was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, that was spurred after George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police.

Vigne Sridharan and Daniella Boronka, two nurses that moved to Hay River in January, were the ones behind the town's rally. They said they were pleasantly surprised by the number of people that decided to march in solidarity.

"We thought it was just going to be the two of us standing there, holding our signs," Sridharan told CBC during the march. "It just shows that everybodyis on the same page, and they wantthis to end."

The Hay River rally is the latest in a series of marches held in Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson and Inuvikin response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Jason Snaggs, CEO of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, drove down from Yellowknife with his wife to deliver the keynote speech at the rally.

Snaggs' impassioned speech touched on his experience as a Black man in the North, giving examples of how he and his children had experienced systemic racism in the territory's schools, healthcare and governance sectors.

"Systemic racism is like a pesticide ... it's harmless to the plant or higher animal, but when absorbed into the bloodstream makes the entire organism toxic to some organisms, and harmless to others," Snaggtold rally participants.

"This toxic racism exists today and continues to put barriers in front of Indigenous, First Nations and peoples in the Northwest Territories."

R.J. Simpson, the MLA for Hay River South, Kandis Jameson, the mayor of Hay River, April Martel, chief of K'atl'odeeche First Nation, and Gail Cyr from the N.W.T. Human Rights Commission, also delivered speeches at the event.

Rally participants signed a petition after the event asking for a territorial summit to address systemic racism in the N.W.T.