Post by Jason EagleSpeaker

Chantel Moore should still be alive. She wasn’t a suspect. She wasn’t a criminal. . She was a 26-year-old Nuu-chah-nulth woman from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, living in Edmundston, New Brunswick, just trying to build a peaceful life for herself and her six-year-old daughter, Gracie. Chantel grew up on Vancouver Island, around Port Alberni. Her family remembers her as gentle but fierce when it came to those she loved. She laughed easy, sang loud, and worked hard. When she moved east to be closer to her mother, Martha Martin, it was supposed to be a fresh start… new job, new home, new stability. On June 4, 2020, not long after midnight, an Edmundston police officer came to her apartment for what they called a “wellness check.” Her former boyfriend, worried after receiving troubling messages, had asked police to see if she was okay. Within minutes, she was dead. The officer said Chantel opened her door holding a knife. He fired four shots on the balcony of her third-floor apartment… no de-escalation, no time to call for backup, no mental-health team on site, and no non-lethal option on his belt. She was killed during a call meant to keep her safe. When the phone rang that night, her mother thought maybe it was Chantel calling to say goodnight to Gracie. Instead, it was a police officer telling her that her daughter was gone. The investigation was handled by Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI). A year later, the New Brunswick Public Prosecution Service announced no charges would be laid. The coroner’s inquest in 2022 confirmed the sequence - four shots, 30 seconds, one Indigenous woman dead - and offered recommendations. But recommendations don’t bring people back. Martha Martin refused to stay silent. She’s spoken at Parliament Hill, marched at vigils, and met with officials who still stumble over their own excuses. Every year she gathers people to remember Chantel, demanding real change in how police respond to “wellness checks.” Chantel’s name has become a symbol of what policing looks like for too many Indigenous families… calls for help that end in funerals. Because the truth is this: Chantel Moore was not a threat. She was a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend. She was Nuu-chah-nulth. She deserved help, not bullets. Chantel Moore should still be alive. And this country should have learned from her before another mother had to bury her child. #JusticeForChantelMoore #MMIWG2S #IndigenousLivesMatter #NoJusticeNoPeace