OTTAWA —
In cities throughout Canada, folks gathered to mark a day that honours the hundreds of lacking and murdered Indigenous girls and women are questioning the federal authorities’s dedication to serving to them.
Monday marked the Nationwide Day of Motion for Lacking and Murdered Indigenous Ladies, Women and 2SLGBTQ+ folks (MMIWG), with occasions in Winnipeg, Vancouver and Hamilton, to call a number of. The day is supposed to boost consciousness for the a whole lot of Indigenous girls and women who’re gone from their communities and the instances that stay unsolved.
Whereas the numbers of MMIWG instances fluctuate, a 2014 report from the RCMP discovered there have been 1,017 homicides of Indigenous girls between 1980 and 2012, a price of about 2.6 deaths monthly. Statistics Canada has discovered that Indigenous girls and women are 12 instances extra more likely to be murdered or lacking than different Canadian girls.
In accordance with the Native Ladies’s Affiliation of Canada, solely about 53 per cent of the 582 homicide instances within the group’s “Sisters In Spirit” database have been solved.
In 2019, a nationwide MMIWG inquiry discovered that Canada’s “assimilationist and genocidal authorities legal guidelines” towards Indigenous folks result in excessive charges of violence towards Indigenous girls, women, and LGBTQ2S+ folks. The report additionally included 231 calls to motion, however the response has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Whereas our individuals are out right here struggling with psychological well being, addictions, being additional exploited, being additional harmed, we’d like preventative measures put in place proper now,” Rachel Willan, a survivor of violence, informed CTV Information on the Winnipeg gathering.
Two years later, Indigenous folks on the bottom are nonetheless ready for tangible adjustments.
“Sufficient discuss. Let’s do it. Let’s put it into motion,” mentioned Bernice Catcheway, whose daughter Jennifer has been lacking for 13 years. “Put these phrases into motion.”
In June, the federal authorities launched its 2021 Nationwide Motion Plan that contained a plan for find out how to deal with the violence towards Indigenous girls, women and 2SLGBTQ+ folks.
Nonetheless, Indigenous folks have cause to be skeptical of presidency guarantees.
Simply final week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was seen on a seaside in Tofino, B.C., through the inaugural Nationwide Day for Fact and Reconciliation.
“It is an insult to harm, particularly not just for my household, however my pals’ household and a whole lot and hundreds of households throughout this nation,” mentioned Alaya McIvor, a survivor of violence.
Trudeau has privately apologized to the chief of Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation for passing up on visiting the First Nation final week and as a substitute vacationing in Tofino.
With information from CTVNews.ca Ottawa Information Bureau On-line Producer Rachel Aiello
