
In Canada, a daughter's fight to bring her murdered mother home
Winnipeg, Canada - The last time Elle Harris saw her mother, she was on a bus in Winnipeg's North End.
It was a chance encounter. Elle was 16 and making her way to work when she spotted Morgan slouched near the back of the bus.
She was in the grips of drug-induced psychosis - her eyes vacant and unfocused, her body rocking back and forth as her lips moved in silent conversation with someone who wasn't there.
When their eyes met, there was no flicker of recognition. The woman who had once gently braided her hair and read her bedtime stories now stared through her.
Elle got off at the next stop and sobbed as she watched the bus pull away.
This reporting was supported by the International Women's Media Foundation's Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T).
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
5 days ago
- Al Jazeera
Canadian wildfire smoke spreads across a third of United States
Smoke from wildfires burning in three Canadian provinces has covered about a third of the United States, forecasters said, but had little effect on air quality except in New England and parts of New York state and the Midwest. Alerts were issued on Tuesday for parts of Canada and the neighbouring US, warning of the haze, which brought hazardous levels of particulate pollution to Minnesota, stretched from the Dakotas through the Ohio Valley, into the Northeast and as far south as Georgia, according to the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. It was especially thick in New York and New England. 'Much of the smoke is aloft in the upper atmosphere, so in a lot of areas, there aren't air quality issues,' said the National Weather Service's Marc Chenard on Wednesday. 'But there are air quality issues as far south as New York and Connecticut, where it's thicker and in the lower atmosphere.' Scores of wildfires have spread across Canada since the start of May. More than 212 active fires were burning in the country as of Tuesday afternoon, half of which were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. So far, 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) have burned. Most of the fires were in the west-central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. A water tanker air base was consumed by flames in Saskatchewan province, oil production has been disrupted in Alberta, and officials warned of worse to come, with more communities threatened each day. 'We have some challenging days ahead of us,' Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference, adding that the number of evacuees could rise quickly. Yang Liu, a professor of environmental health at Emory University in Atlanta, said infants, the elderly and other frail people were most susceptible to the smoke, but emphasised that everyone is at risk. 'It will affect everyone at some level, all walks of life,' Liu said. 'It's bad.' He said the smoke is comprised of small particles, some of them toxic, that are smaller than 1/40th of the width of a human hair and can get into the lungs and even dissolve into the bloodstream. One of the worst spots for air quality in the northeastern US on Wednesday morning was Williamstown, Massachusetts, near the state's borders with Vermont and New York. It registered a 'very unhealthy' reading of 228, according to IQAir, a website that monitors air quality around the world. An air quality rating of below 50 is considered to be 'good,' and readings between 100 and 300 are deemed 'unhealthy' to 'very unhealthy,' while higher than that is considered 'hazardous,' according to the website. The ratings in other parts of the US Northeast were much lower, with New York City's standing at 56 on Wednesday morning and Washington's registering at 55. Air quality levels in some parts of the Midwest had also improved on Wednesday morning. Ely, near Minnesota's border with Manitoba, registered a 'moderate' reading of 65, down from 336 on Tuesday. Minneapolis, which had ranked as the third-worst city in the world for air quality on Tuesday, with a 168 reading, was registering at 96.


Al Jazeera
01-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
This is what it is like to be held in solitary confinement in a US prison
Warning: This story contains references to suicide, which some readers may find disturbing. If you or a loved one is experiencing suicidal thoughts, help and support are available. Visit Befrienders International for more information about support services. When I was a child, I would spend each summer with my family in the foothills of northern Pakistan's Karakoram mountains. We would spend our days exploring the verdant meadows, forests and lakes in this region known as the "roof of the world" and then return to our lodge for meals of chargha (fire-roasted chicken) and naan, hot tea, coconut biscuits, cashews and dried fruits. At night, we'd make bonfires and tell stories about our family spread all over the world. I remember how tiny I felt sitting wrapped in a woollen Kashmiri shawl on those chilly nights, sitting under skies full of stars. Those trips always carried a sense of adventure - and freedom. One day during one of those summer holidays when I was 12, my Aunt Naseem went for a walk and I tagged along. She was my mentor and confidant and, having never had children of her own, was like a mother to me. That day, we headed to the Neelam River separating Pakistan-administered Kashmir from Indian-administered Kashmir. We walked along the riverbank beside the clear river. We were so close to the border that we could see the Indian army posts, their guns pointed in our direction. Arriving at a higher point, we stood in the Neelum Valley. It had rained earlier and now the air was fresh. Snow-capped peaks rose in the distance. I remember my aunt pulling me into the warmth of her shawl. "Once here, Tariq, you never actually leave. A part of you will always stay in the north, always beckoning,' she told me. Her words enchanted me. "You don't believe me,' she said, her smile widening. "Shout out your name and see what happens." I shouted - as loud as I could. Then it came: an echo that seemed to say my name over and over into the distance. "Now you see. The mountains are too high. They will never let Tariq leave," my aunt told me.


Al Jazeera
01-06-2025
- Al Jazeera
In Canada, a daughter's fight to bring her murdered mother home
Winnipeg, Canada - The last time Elle Harris saw her mother, she was on a bus in Winnipeg's North End. It was a chance encounter. Elle was 16 and making her way to work when she spotted Morgan slouched near the back of the bus. She was in the grips of drug-induced psychosis - her eyes vacant and unfocused, her body rocking back and forth as her lips moved in silent conversation with someone who wasn't there. When their eyes met, there was no flicker of recognition. The woman who had once gently braided her hair and read her bedtime stories now stared through her. Elle got off at the next stop and sobbed as she watched the bus pull away. This reporting was supported by the International Women's Media Foundation's Fund for Indigenous Journalists: Reporting on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, Two-Spirit and Transgender People (MMIWG2T).