Episode 5: The Walking Dead

Written By Justice for Cabot Square MMIWG2S+

In case you missed it, here is a link to episode 5: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1896469784.

Image Descriptions…

  • Image 1: image describing the San Diego Police’s use of the “No Human Involved" classification for sex trade killings

  • Image 2: headshot of Alasie Tukkiapik

  • Image 3: protest signs that were posted around Toronto in response to proposed closure of safe consumption sites

  • Image 4: image of the saggital suture of the skull, which was fractured in Ellen's death

In this episode….

In our fifth episode of "Manufactured Death”, we explore a series of seven suspicious deaths of Indigenous women which occurred between January 2023 to July 2024. We look at how government closures of safe consumption sites and systemic apathy to the opioid and toxic drug supply provides the perfect guise to get away with murder of Indigenous women, including several examples of this. The death of Alasie Tukkiapik is discussed as part of this string of deaths, along with yet another hanging death. These deaths, and the lack of response to them, is situated within Achilles Mbembe’s concept of “necropolitics”, and the historic use of the “No Human Involved” classification of sex trade femicides.

Timestamps…

  • Necropolitics: 00:36

  • No Human Involved: 9:31

  • Jillian and Sophia: 17:02

  • Ashley and Celeste: 29:40

  • Safe consumption sites closure: 32:32

  • Alasie Tukkiapik: 45:11

  • Ellen: 53:22

  • Melanie: 59:18

Calls to Action…

  1. Call on the Surete du Quebec at 1-800-659-4264 and the SPVM at and request that they launch an investigation into all suspicious deaths of all Indigenous women in and around Cabot Square

  2. Contact the office of the Mayor of Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada at 514-872-0311. Call on her to implement oversight and accountability measures for Montreal community service organizations, and to launch an inquiry into the conduct of the Montreal Police, Batshaw, and surrounding community organizations in Montreal in light of the high number of MMIWG2S+ in Cabot Square.

  3. Learn more about harm reduction, and join the fight to save safe consumption sites and harm reduction across Canada by visiting: www.harmreduction.org. Call on your local MP or MPP and ask them to stand up to protect life saving care.

Resources…

Sources…

  1. Chan, H. C. O., & Beauregard, E. (2019). Prostitute homicides: A 37‑year exploratory study of the offender, victim, and offense characteristics. Forensic Science International, 294, 196–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.11.022

  2. CBC News. (2026, April 9). Alberta government faces another legal fight to keep supervised consumption sites open in Calgary and Lethbridge. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/supervised-consumption-legal-battle-9.7156593

  3. CBC News. (2025, March 26). Benoît Labre safe consumption site at centre of ongoing debate in Quebec. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/benoît-labre-safe-consumption-drugs-quebec-1.7528045

  4. CBC News. (2023, September 14). Insite marks 20-year anniversary as Canada’s first supervised injection site [Video]. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/insite-20-year-anniversary-1.6966605

  5. CBC News. (2024, March 16). Ontario ending supervised drug consumption funding. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-ending-supervised-drug-consumption-funding-9.7130534

  6. CTV News Edmonton. (January 4, 2026). The perfect crime: What are hotshot homicides?https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/the-perfect-crime-what-are-hotshot-homicides/

  7. Christovale, E., Bogues, A., Jackson, Z. I., & Wynter, S. (2021). No humans involved: Artists defy Western conceptions of the “human” (Foreword by A. Philbin). DelMonico Books/Hammer Museum. https://delmonicobooks.com/book/no-humans-involved/

  8. Ferrer, E., & de Notaris, M. (2011). Contemporary skull fractures: Unusual everted fracture. World Neurosurgery, 76(5), 417–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2011.01.039

  9. Gezinski, L. B., Gonzalez‑Pons, K. M., & Rogers, M. M. (2021). Substance use as a coping mechanism for survivors of intimate partner violence: Implications for safety and service accessibility. Violence Against Women, 27(2), 108–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801219882496

  10. Kisubi Mbasalaki, P. (2023). Sex work feminicide and the making of #SayHerName campaign by SWEAT in South Africa.In M. Dawson & S. Mobayed Vega (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook on femicide and feminicide (pp. 351–360). Routledge.

  11. Lowman, J. (2000). Violence and the outlaw status of (street) prostitution in Canada. Violence Against Women, 6(9), 987–1011. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778010022182245

  12. Munakomi, S., Bhattarai, B., & Shah, S. B. (2022). A near‑complete sagittal split of the adult cranial vault due to traumatic diastatic fracture overlying the superior sagittal sinus. Neurology India, 70(1), 167. https://doi.org/\10.4103/0028‑3886.338702 

  13. Potterat, J. J., Brewer, D. D., Muth, S. Q., Rothenberg, R. B., Woodhouse, D. E., Muth, J. B., Stites, H. K., & Brody, S. (2004). Mortality in a long‑term open cohort of prostitute women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 159(8), 778–785. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwh110

  14. Public Health Agency of Canada. (n.d.). Opioid- and stimulant-related harms in Canada. Government of Canada. https://health-infobase.canada.ca/substance-related-harms/opioids-stimulants/

  15. Quinet, K. (2011). Prostitutes as victims of serial homicide: Trends and case characteristics, 1970–2009. Homicide Studies, 15(1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767910397276

  16. Salfati, C. G., James, A. R., & Ferguson, L. (2008). Prostitute homicides: A descriptive study. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(4), 505–543. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260507312946

  17. Sorochinski, M., & Salfati, C. G. (2019). Sex worker homicide series: Profiling the crime scene. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 63(9), 1776–1793. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X19839274

Justice for Cabot Square MMIWG2S+
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Episode 4: No Safe Place