100 attend vigil for six dead babies found in storage locker
'Children discarded like so many other things in this world,' says organizer
About a hundred people attended a vigil for the six infants whose remains were discovered inside a U-Haul storage locker on Monday.
They sang prayers and placed a cross, teddy bears and candles outside the facility.
Vin Clarke, who organized the vigil, said he didn't know the babies but he felt compelled to do something to remember them.
"If they're native or not it, doesn't matter," he said. "They're children that are discarded like so many other things in this world."
Winnipeg police have charged a 40-year-old woman after the remains were found.
Andrea Giesbrecht, who is also known as Andrea Naworynski, was arrested outside a home in the Maples neighbourhood and charged with six counts of concealing the body of a child.
Greg Brodsky, Giesbrecht's lawyer, said he will be in court Thursday to set a bail hearing date for his client.
'Their lives were not in vain'
Jo Seenie Redsky was among the one hundred people who came out in the rain to pray for the souls of children they never met.
"That's what this is about," she told the CBC's Caroline Barghout. "It's remembering the little ones and that their lives were not in vain and it's horrific."
Belinda Vandenbroeck said the discovery of the dead infants reminded her of the children who died in residential schools.
"When I saw this, it was just another reminder of little souls that were taken without knowing why, what happened," she said.
Michael-Yellow Wing Kannon said tragedies like this one can bring a community together.
"This is important not just for us, but for everyone to see," he said.
The CBC's Cameron MacIntosh was at the vigil Wednesday and tweeted the photo and video below.