I have done a post on Advocacy BC in honour of the many girls and women who experience oppression and violence across Canada. I have included a number of resource links for places girls and women can contact in case they need help.
Momentum is building for a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Girls and Women across Canada. The United Nations has cited Canada for our failure to do anything meaningful about the girls and women who have gone missing, or been murdered.
I hope that Social Workers, collectively and individually, will find a way to support a National Inquiry.
Liberal senator launches upper chamber inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women
A Liberal senator has launched an inquiry in the upper chamber into missing and murdered aboriginal women, part of growing momentum to address the problem in Canada.
On Tuesday, aboriginal senator Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, who hails from Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, proposed the inquiry “into the tragedy of missing and murdered aboriginal women.”
“Let us work together across party lines and jurisdictions to act for Canadians, for aboriginal women and girls and their families. Let us do what we are here to do as legislators and advocates on behalf of Canadian society,” said Nicholas.
“I propose that we study this matter in and through this honourable place, that we review the status, impact and effectiveness of the government’s response to date, and that we engage in dialogue with national aboriginal leaders, particularly the Native Women’s Association of Canada, to determine ways and means of working with them to truly end the plight of aboriginal women.”
It means the issue will be studied in the Senate chamber, with opportunity for senators to speak on it every day until the end of session or the dissolution of Parliament.
Although relatively informal, it could set the stage for a future motion to study the issue at committee where senators could hear from witnesses and make formal recommendations in reports.
According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, almost 600 aboriginal women have gone missing or have been murdered in Canada in the last 30 years. It was the association’s Sister in Spirit initiative that compiled the data over five years with $5 million in funding, from the previous Liberal government but it was not renewed by the Conservatives.
Nicholas said there have been 153 murders of aboriginal women, which represents approximately 10 per cent of the total number of female homicides in Canada despite the fact that aboriginal women make up only three per cent of the female population in Canada.
Calls for a national inquiry, including recently from Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, who even penned a song about it, have so far been rejected by the Harper government.
On Tuesday at the Assembly of First Nation’s annual meeting, women’s council chair Adeline Webber said a national inquiry is the only way to draw attention to the issue.
“It’s just being brushed aside,” she said. “If there were almost 600 missing and murdered regular everyday women, non-First Nation women, there would be a public outcry.”
© 2012 iPolitics Inc.
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