Nearly 5,000 protestors gathered at Nathan Phillips Square yesterday afternoon in support of International Women's Day and to demand justice for Tina Fontaine, the 15 year-old Indigenous girl from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba who was found murdered in 2014. 

Just a week after Tina's accused killer Raymond Cormier was acquitted of second-degree murder, the crowd came together in a call for Canadian child welfare reform and justice for the Indigenous community. 

To commemorate International Women’s Day, marchers in Toronto joined in solidarity with a rally for criminal justice reform in the wake of the Tina Fontaine verdict. #JusticeForTinaFontaine. https://t.co/zcwAnaImys

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) March 3, 2018

The rally followed weeks of gatherings across Canada protesting Indigenous discrimination, and was joined by the International Women's Day Toronto March. 

Crowd gathering near Fort York on Toronto to honour #TinaFontaine pic.twitter.com/tE3rfCPfXT

— Beverly Andrews (@APTNBeverly) February 23, 2018

Just last week, nearly 200 protestors gathered at Fort York on a cold rainy day before walking down to Lake Ontario in silent prayer led by Indigenous youth. 

#JusticeForColten Toronto, Ontario pic.twitter.com/RNuE4gBOXQ

— Ian Mosbγ (@Ian_Mosby) February 10, 2018

The week before that, hundreds gathered at Nathan Phillips to protest the verdict in the case of 22 year-old Colten Boushie, an Indiegenous man who was shot dead by a white farmer in Saskatchewan.

The event yesterday was organized by 16 year-old Madyson Arscott, an Ojibwe student at John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute.

In the cold, protestors formed circles around speakers – mostly Indigenous women – who spoke and performed sacred rituals in honour of Tina, as well as all of Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people.