Gladys Radek

Gladys Radek (born c. 1955) is a Canadian human rights activist, from Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en territory, for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).

Early life Radek was born in Witset BC,

Proving System Racism at BC Human Rights Tribunal In 2001, after witnessing repeated incidents of harassment of her, her friends and other Indigenous peoples by security guards at the International Village mall in downtown Vancouver, she launched a complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal. Following a four-year case (Radek v. Henderson Development (Canada) Ltd.,) in which she endured weeks of demeaning commentary from respondents lawyers the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal found the mall, and its security guards had engaged in a pattern of systemic discrimination based on race and disability. Radek was awarded $15,000, which at that time represented the largest-ever damages in a case involving injury to dignity in a systemic discrimination case. In 2006 the first Highway of Tears walk was organized by Radek and Bernie Williams. In 2008, she led the first Walk4Justice, a 4,000-kilometre walk from Vancouver to Parliament Hill in Ottawa to press for a public inquiry into Canada's missing and murdered women. She organized continued cross-Canada walks that played a key role in bringing about the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 2016. In 2019 the inquiry came to the conclusion that Canada's policies and actions towards Indigenous women amounted to genocide. She has raised international awareness of the MMIWG issue and the Highway of Tears in Northern British Columbia through her walks across Canada, and through her vehicle the 'War Pony'

Awards She was a recipient of the Muriel Duckworth Award for Peace Activism in 2024 and was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal in June 2025.