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“I am asking for your support to return to Canada to my Treaty lands where I will continue to pursue justice for myself and my son Vinny”
Dawn Dumont Walker and her son Vincent were found in Oregon City, Oregon on August 5, two weeks after they were last seen. Photo by SASKATOON POLICE DEPARTMENT/THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Saskatoon author Dawn Walker, who is facing charges in Canada and the United States stemming from her two-week disappearance with her son, says she left because she “feared for my safety and my son’s.”
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Walker, 48, is currently being held at a detention center in Oregon, with a hearing on the charges set for Sept. 7 in Portland. Her son returned to Saskatoon with a legal guardian on August 7.
A criminal complaint filed by an official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleges that Walker used the identity of a friend and that person’s child to facilitate her flight over the Canada-U.S. border with her son (whom the StarPhoenix previously identified but not now named, due to his age, after he was found safe).
In a statement sent through her friend Eleanor Sunchild, who is a lawyer, Walker said she had been “failed by the Saskatchewan justice system, the family law system and the child protection system.”
Walker apologized to anyone she hurt, saying she “wasn’t left with no choice. No one heard me.”
She said she was motivated by her “huge love” for her son, who is her only child, but added “I will suffer the consequences of my decision.”
Walker faces a charge of aggravated identity theft and a misdemeanor charge of identity theft in the United States, according to a criminal complaint filed in an Oregon court on Aug. 5. In Canada, she faces charges of public mischief and kidnapping a parent in violation of a custody order.
It was the first time Walker spoke publicly about the allegations. None of the charges against her have been proven in court.
Walker was taken into custody Friday after she and her son were found safe in Oregon City, Ore., following a two-week search that began after the family last heard from her on July 22. The next day, her red Ford F-150 truck and belongings were found on the river bank at Chief Whitecap Park and reported to the RCMP, with Saskatoon police learning about it two days later.
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“I struggle with systems that consistently fail to protect me as an Indigenous woman and protect non-Indigenous men. That doesn’t surprise me. Saskatchewan and the systems within have failed Indigenous people since colonization,” Walker said in her statement, collected by Sunchild, from the Multnomah County Jail in Portland.
On Monday, Saskatoon Police Deputy Chief Randy Huisman said all previous allegations made by Walker had been “thoroughly investigated” and no charges had been laid as a result of those investigations.
He said police are investigating the possibility that one or more people helped Walker on her alleged flight to the US with her son.
Sunchild, who is in the US, said she traveled to Oregon over the weekend and visited Walker twice.
“She’s on her best behavior,” Sunchild said in an interview.
Although Sunchild cannot practice law in the U.S. because she is a Canadian lawyer, she said she has the best interests of Walker and her son out there. Her days were long and filled with advocating for her friend, she said.
“I’m here as an Indigenous woman supporting another Indigenous woman, which is what we do for our friends and family when they’re in trouble,” she said.
Sunchild said supporters have written and lobbied on Walker’s behalf for her extradition.
A six-page arrest warrant filed by the district attorney in U.S. District Court in Portland alleges Walker laid out an “elaborate and well-thought-out plan” that included kidnapping her child, faking her and her son’s deaths and running away at home
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The motion, written by U.S. Attorney Natalie K. White, said the alleged scheme was “designed for one purpose — to evade the law and avoid detection.” White alleges that Walker went to “extreme” lengths to steal her and her son’s identities, allowing them to enter the U.S. and go into hiding, and that she hid and “directed” assets into accounts to finance the escape you are from the law.
“Her efforts were both criminal and traumatic for the family members who suffered from her scheme,” White said in the government’s case for keeping Walker in custody.
US federal rules of evidence do not apply during custody hearings, as the motion document makes clear.
In his statement, Walker said he has a story to tell and wants to return to Canada to tell it.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you my friends and family and the other women who can’t get justice everywhere we turn. So many women and children before us have had to run for their lives to protect their children,” Walker said.
“I am asking for your support to return to Canada to my Treaty lands where I will continue to pursue justice for myself and my son. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your love and support and for believing that I have my truth to tell.’
tjames@postmedia.com
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A Timeline of the Missing, Search and Found Mother and Son in Saskatoon
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Updated: Dawn Walker is being held in the US as a flight risk
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US court documents detail Dawn Walker’s investigation into the country
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Supporters rallied for Dawn Walker on Sunday amid ‘mixed reactions’; police announce charges
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