Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE B1 Steering toward success / B6 CITY & BUSINESS CITY EDITOR: SHANE MINKIN 204- 697- 7292 I CITY. DESK@ FREEPRESS. MB. CA I WINNIPEGFREEPRESS. COM THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 B 1 I NDIGENOUS searchers have been scouring the fields in Elmwood this week for clues to the disappearance of Thelma Krull, the woman who vanished during a morning walk earlier this month. The small group hit the ground Sunday. " We'll keep on going as long as searchers come out," said organizer Kim Ricker. The group gathers nightly around 6 p. m. at the Elmwood Community Centre. " If we find anything suspicious, we're not touching it. We'll take a picture of it and send it on," Ricker said. She is sharing search results on a private Krull family Facebook site. The indigenous searchers are using a private Facebook site to organize their search efforts for Krull, tagged to a couple of provocative memes designed to draw out indigenous support. " All this week I'm holding search parties for this lady. Her family needs closure, just like anyone else. I'm asking all to come out ( and) show compassion. If we want the same efforts, then we must give the same efforts for ALL MISSING... Gotta give compassion to get compassion," it read Wednesday. Krull, 57, was last seen at 7: 23 a. m. on July 11, leaving her home in Harbourview South to go for a walk in the Valley Gardens area. Ricker said she and the other indigenous searchers are also drawing on their experience with Drag the Red, an indigenous campaign for missing and murdered indigenous women that mounts its campaigns separate from police searches. " We're with Drag the Red, and I'm part of another Facebook group for Elmwood, and there was this post out there, of the searches for Thelma Krull. We watched it for a few days, and we saw how police were actively involved," Ricker said. " If we have a child missing, we want the same kind of response from the community, the police and everyone... So that everybody looks for everybody, no matter the race," she said. Earlier posts on the closed Facebook site used memes, a social- media phenomenon. In this case, a photo of the Joker from The Dark Knight Batman movie was used with the caption: " 1,200 murdered and missing women and nobody bats an eye. One white woman goes missing and everybody loses their mind." A second meme drove the message home with contrasting images. They show police from one of the daily ground searches in wall- to- wall media coverage. The contrasting images show indigenous searchers, with police as observers, drumming through the North End. The images may be provocative, but the effort is genuine, Ricker said. " The meme with the pictures, that's just to get attention ( on Facebook). It's really sad that you have got to put out something negative before you get back something positive, but it worked. All we're asking for it that everybody be treated equally," Ricker said. " That's Kim's point, exactly," said James Favel, a leader with a community patrol called the Bear Clan. Volunteers hold patrols two or three times a week to draw attention to the need for public safety in the North End. " This happens to everybody, and we should all support one another. Unfortunately when someone goes missing in our community, the response is different. When a girl is lured in River Heights or Tuxedo, there are news stories about it. But in the North End, it's so common, it goes unreported. That complacency is part of the problem," Favel said. This week, a half- dozen people combed the walkway behind Watt and Talbot avenues, and the tall grass behind Chalmers Community Centre. The locations are among the key landmarks on the route Krull was believed to be walking when she was last seen that Saturday morning. The search was focused on fields in the industrial part of Elmwood for Wednesday evening. alexandra. paul@ freepress. mb. ca Indigenous groups join search All missing people deserve to be found, they say of Krull By Alexandra Paul A park in one of Winnipeg's youngest neighbourhoods will be named after the world's youngest Nobel Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai. " This is good news," said Dost Mughal, vice- president of the Pakistan Canada Business Association of Manitoba. The three- acre park in River Park South at the end of Paddington Road had no name until he and association president Anis Khan lobbied the city to honour Yousafzai, 18. Couns. Brian Mayes and Janice Lukes made it happen, Mughal said. Tonight, they and Pakistani Winnipeggers are celebrating the naming of Malala Park, he said. They're joining the high commissioner of Pakistan to Canada, Abrar Hussain Hashmi, at the Eid Milan open house at the Punjab Cultural Centre on King Edward Street. The Nobel Prize laureate will be there, too, in a way. Yousafzai will deliver a video- recorded message tonight from the U. K. to thank Winnipeg for the honour, said Mughal. Parks and streets in Winnipeg have been named for Gandhi and other luminaries from elsewhere, but none from Pakistan. The only time anyone or anything in Pakistan makes the news here is when it's negative, said Mughal. " We don't have any recognition of big, heroic names," Mughal said Wednesday. Now they do, thanks to the park named after Yousafzai. The modern- day feminist hero nearly died defying the Pakistani Taliban and advocating for girls' education. In 2012, she was shot in the head on her way to school but lived to tell about it - and tell about it she has, in spite of extremists' threats that aim to shut her up even after she and her family were forced to leave Pakistan and take up residence in Britain. The Taliban's actions backfired by giving Malala a global platform to spread her message, " One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world." Canada paid tribute to her, too, inviting her to an Oct. 22, 2014 ceremony in Toronto, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper planning to make her an honorary Canadian citizen. That day, a gunman attacked Parliament Hill, killing Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, and the ceremony was cancelled, said Mughal. He and Khan had been invited to the ceremony and were looking forward to meeting Yousafzai until Canada was rocked by gunfire in Ottawa. " We got this bad news on the plane," said Mughal. The Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday no new date has been set for the ceremony, but in the meantime, Yousafzai is already considered an honorary citizen. Mughal said a large plaque dedicated to Yousafzai will be erected at the park. " My hope is when people come to the park with their family, the children will say ' Who is this girl?' and their mom should tell the children about what she does for young kids," he said. The father of three grown and educated children hopes it will inspire generations of young people playing in the park to value education and advocate for it for children all over the world. " This is for the next generation." carol. sanders@ freepress. mb. ca Park to be named for Pakistani hero Will feature plaque dedicated to Yousafzai PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Indigenous searchers scour areas of Elmwood for potential clues regarding the disappearance of Thelma Krull, who has been missing since July 11. By Carol Sanders TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Anis Khan ( left) and Dost Mughal at what will soon be named Malala Park, at the end of Paddington Road. B_ 01_ Jul- 23- 15_ FP_ 01. indd B1 7/ 22/ 15 10: 15: 06 PM ;