2014–2015: Murder of Loretta Saunders and murder trial

Ottawa vigil held for Loretta Saunders in March 2014

In February 2014, Loretta Saunders was murdered in her Halifax apartment by Blake Leggette and Victoria Henneberry, a couple to which she rented out the apartment.^[5][7] After the family lost touch with Loretta on Valentine's Day, Diem Saunders led a social media campaign to search for Loretta.^[8] Two weeks later, Loretta's body was found on the Trans-Canada Highway in Moncton, New Brunswick.^[9] The murder resulted in national news coverage and renewed concerns for a public inquiry into the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG).^[10]

Saunders created a blog to document their personal experiences following their sister's murder.^[5][10] Another sibling of a murder victim, Kim Johnston, whose sister was killed in Halifax in 2016, was later led to become friends with Saunders after reading the blog.^[11] Saunders told CBC News in 2018 that Johnston had provided support to them at the time Loretta's trial had started.^[11] Saunders also helped create a scholarship fund named after Loretta, the Loretta Saunders Community Scholarship Fund, available to Indigenous women pursuing post-secondary education in Atlantic Canada, Mi'kma'ki, and Nunatsiavut.^[12]

Saunders relocated to Calgary, Alberta in 2014.^[10]

Leggette and Henneberry went on trial in 2015, during which they pled guilty to the murder.^[7] Saunders helped organize Atlantic Canada screenings of Matt Smiley's documentary film Highway of Tears, which focuses on cases of women who were murdered or disappeared on the stretch of British Columbia Highway 16 known as the Highway of Tears.^[5] Saunders told CBC News that the two "really pushed" to hold a film showing in Halifax on the day that the trial started.^[5]

2016–2017: Muskrat Falls protests and MMIWG inquiry

In 2016, a planned hydroelectric power project at Muskrat Falls, Labrador drew protests because of concerns that flooding of the reservoir would cause unsafe methylmercury levels in Lake Melville and impact wildlife further throughout the water supply, including the Muskrat Falls reservoir.^[13] Labradorian artist Billy Gauthier, Jerry Kohlmeister, and Saunders participated in a hunger strike in Ottawa to protest the project.^[14][15] The hunger strikes ran for nearly two weeks, until a deal made by Newfoundland and Labrador premier Dwight Ball with Indigenous community leaders to end the protests and the establishment of an advisory committee of independent experts, which Gauthier said fulfilled his criteria for ending the strike.^[15] Nalcor Energy, the provincial energy corporation operating the Muskrat Falls reservoir, began reservoir flooding for the hydroelectric project in 2019.^[4] Speaking with APTN News, Saunders praised the decision by the government of Nunatsiavut, in Labrador, to decline $10 million offered by the provincial government and Nalcor, money originally designated for a proposal to cap surrounding wetlands that failed to be processed by the provincial government the previous month.^[4]

The single copy of a nearly complete book manuscript about Loretta that Saunders had been writing for the past two years was stolen when Saunders' apartment in Halifax was burglarized in late 2016.^[16] The manuscript focused on Saunders' relationship with Loretta, and the experience of dealing with her death and navigating the court system.^[16]

Amnesty International awarded the 2017 Ambassador of Conscience Award to Saunders and five other individuals involved with the Indigenous rights movement in Canada (Cindy Blackstock, Melanie Morton, Murray Sinclair, Melissa Mollen Dupuis and Widia Larivière), and American singer Alicia Keys for her social activism.^[17][18] The Saunders family was the first testify at the hearings for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women held in the Membertou First Nation, N.S., in October of that year.^[19] The family spoke about Loretta's life and said the attention that Loretta's disappearance received from Halifax police changed after they discovered she was an Inuk woman rather than a white woman.^[19] Saunders also spoke about their personal experiences living with Loretta and alleged that the counsellor assigned to them by the Nova Scotia government acted improperly, including touching Saunders's leg and making comments about Loretta's appearance.^[19] Around the time of the inquiry, Saunders visited secondary schools in Ontario to share their experiences.^[20] Saunders collaborated with Labrador City composer Andrew Noseworthy on a chamber opera, One Stalk, One Arrow, No Stalk, No Arrow, which had its premiere at the University of Western Ontario in November.^[20] The subject of Saunders's first written piece for the opera was the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada's prison population.^[20]

2017–2021: Liver transplant controversy and continued activism

Saunders experienced liver failure in December 2017.^[21] While receiving treatment at Toronto General Hospital in Ontario, Saunders told CBC News their history of alcohol use led them to be denied a place on the waiting list for liver transplants because the Trillium Gift of Life Network, which oversaw organ donations for the province at the time, required candidates with alcohol-associated diseases to abstain from alcohol for six months.^[21][22] Saunders described the policy as "antiquated" and too "restrictive."^[21] They said speaking about their sister's murder at MMIWG hearings in October led to a relapse, despite the "huge personal milestones" they reached in sobriety.^[22] After CBC News reported on Saunders's ineligibility for a transplant, the policy became the subject of national discussion.^[21][22] Amnesty International and Indigenous organizations called for Saunders's placement onto the waitlist.^[1][22] The Trillium Gift of Life Network released a statement explaining that the policy was established on the advice of physicians and that it was being evaluated in a pilot experiment the following year that would look for any "evidence-based basis."^[22] The Canadian Press reported that some doctors defended the policy using research that suggests some alcoholics begin to drink again after a transplant.^[21][23] Saunders was later discharged from the hospital after doctors said the procedure was not necessary.^[23] For a couple days starting later that month, Saunders was treated for pancreatitis at the Health Sciences Centre, in Newfoundland and Labrador.^[21][23]

In 2018, Saunders wrote an article in the Nova Scotia Advocate criticizing author Shannon Webb-Campbell for not requesting permission from the Saunders family to write graphically about the death of Loretta in the poetry collection Who Took My Sister?^[24] Webb-Campbell's publisher Book*hug subsequently announced it had halted the book's sale, distribution, and promotion, and said the book's sales revenue would be donated to the Loretta Saunders Scholarship Fund.^[24]

According to SaltWire Network, Saunders was also interested in facilitating access to mental healthcare.^[25]

The Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Commission posthumously awarded Saunders its 2021 Human Rights Award.^[26]

Name change

Saunders was formerly known by the first name Delilah.^[1] Saunders came out as non-binary in 2021 and stated they would be changing their first name to Diem; they announced on social media: "I am non-binary and always have been [...] I embrace all of me and don't have a dead name, so address me by Delilah and I won't be upset. Ultimately, I do wish for you to respect my name, Diem."^[1]

Death

Saunders died on September 7, 2021, at their home in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.^[1] They were 29 years old.^[1] An investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened the following day found Saunders's death to be "not criminal in nature".^[1][27]

According to Saunders's mother, Saunders had been using Suboxone for an opioid addiction developed after Loretta's murder and drank alcohol to deal with the effects of Suboxone withdrawal.^[25]

Citations

Sources