'Stop hunting us, stop killing us': hundreds at Vancouver rally demand justice for Tina Fontaine

It was a familiar scene just two weeks apart.

On Feb. 10, hundreds gathered for a rally at the CBC Plaza in downtown Vancouver to protest the not-guilty verdict in the death of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man killed who was shot and killed on a property in rural Saskatchewan.

On Saturday, hundreds assembled in the same spot,for anacquittal in the death of anotherIndigenous youth: Tina Fontaine, the 15-year-old Winnipeg teenwhose body was found wrapped in a river in Aug. 2014, and whose cause of death remains unknown.

Raymond Cormier, the man charged in her killing, was acquittedby a jury Thursday after a three-week trial, sparking nationwide rallies and demands for reforms in Canada's justice system.

• Jury finds Raymond Cormier not guilty in death of Tina Fontaine
• Everyone must 'confront the shame and tragedy of our country's racism': Winnipeg mayor

The speakers' voices in Vancouverwere wrought with emotionas they denouncedback-to-back injustices.

"I see the babies and it scares me because how do we keep them safe? The systems are stacked against us," Audrey Siegl said on stage.

"Stop hunting us, stop killing us."

'Indigenous women are valued the least'

David Dennis described the mood in Indigenous communities as deep anger.

"It's just a sense of hopelessness at this point," Dennis said.

He said the rally was to signal to the public that Indigenous people were "not going to sit on their hands on issues like this."

Dennis also brought his four-year-old daughter to the rally.She's been raised in a loving family, he said, but he worries about her growing up in a country that he says is systemically racist toward Indigenous people.

"[Fontaine's]case underscores the fact that, in this country, Indigenous women are valued the least," he said.

Angela Marie MacDougallcalled violence against Indigenous women an epidemicin Canada and said the rally was to stand in solidarity with them.

"We have Tina Fontaines every day all across Canada," she said.

"This is a grave injustice and it's a day of mourning."

With files from CBC'sSusana da Silva and Chantelle Bellrichard