April 27, 2023
St. Catharines rally to spotlight Indigenous experience with health care system
Nearly a year and a half after Heather Winterstein’s death, her family is still looking for answers.
“I’m going through, you know, those stages of grief,” Heather’s mother, Francine Shimizu, said. “I’m at the angry stage, and I have good days and bad days.”
Heather, and all missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, will be remembered on May 5 (Red Dress Day) with a demonstration at the St. Catharines site of Niagara Health, where Heather passed away on Dec. 10, 2021.
The 24-year-old St. Catharines Indigenous woman had come to emergency for a second time in two days complaining of back pain. She had been sent home with Tylenol a day earlier after attending the ER with a similar complaint.