Canadian writer Dawn Walker fakes own death and kidnaps son; US to extradite her

The United States is going to extradite Canadian writer Dawn Walker for faking her own death and kidnapping her son.

Accused of stealing her friend's identity to cross Canada's border, Walker said she fled the country because she wanted to escape domestic abuse.

The indigenous author from Okanese Cree Nation in the province of Saskatchewan went missing more than a month ago.

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Prompting fears that she and her son had drowned in the South Saskatchewan River, her abandoned pickup truck was spotted in a park in the city of Saskatoon.

According to department of homeland security officials in the US, Walker was arrested in Oregon for stealing the identity of a friend to cross the border into the US and an “abduction scheme” to bring her seven-year-old son to the country.

Highlighting that she “feared for my safety and that of my son”, Walker said she was “failed by the Saskatchewan justice system, the family law system and child protection”.

The former CEO of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) was involved in a lengthy custody battle for her son.

Walker, who is a critic of the failure to address the sustained crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, was shortlisted for a prestigious Canadian literary award for her book 'The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour'.

FSIN chief Bobby Cameron said in a statement, “It is heartbreaking that Dawn may have felt she had no other choice but to take the drastic action that she did.”

(With inputs from agencies)

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