Federal Government Must Conduct Full Inquiry into Missing or Murdered Aboriginal Women
Federal Government Must Conduct Full Inquiry into Missing or Murdered Aboriginal Women
Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver, BC) – The BC First Nations Leadership Council supports the recommendation of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, urging the Government of Canada to hold a detailed public inquiry into the 511 missing or murdered Aboriginal women in the country and to resolve problems with the law enforcement system.
“Unfortunately, BC First Nations are all too familiar with the cases of missing or murdered women from our communities, including in the Pickton case. All we have to do is look at the cases in the downtown eastside or the Highway of Tears (Highway 16). It is unacceptable that Canada continues to ignore the need for an inquiry into these 511 cases”, said Grand Chief Edward John or the First Nations Summit Political Executive.
“We must learn from and act upon the senseless murders and disappearances of our loved ones. We cannot continue to allow these tragedies to fall by the wayside; we must continue to fully advocate for the victims and their families by calling on Canada and the RCMP to conduct an immediate public inquiry and expand investigations in order to prevent further senseless and tragic deaths”, added Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.
Both the BC First Nations Leadership Council and the National Assembly of First Nations have Public Safety Cooperation Protocols with the RCMP. The Protocols are an indication of First Nations’ desire to work with law enforcement agencies to develop their relationships through mutual respect and trust and to outline strategies to address community safety issues.
“In the spirit of the Protocol First Nations have signed with the RCMP, the First Nations Leadership Council is urging Canada and the RCMP to examine options to strengthen their response to these unsolved cases, thus preventing similar tragedies and providing answers and peace of mind to the grieving families” concluded Regional Chief Shawn Atleo of the BC Assembly of First Nations.
In a recent report of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the committee indicated Canada must explain why law enforcement agencies have failed to deal with the disappearance and murder of Aboriginal women across Canada and urged Canada to conduct an inquiry into the outstanding cases of 511 missing or murdered Aboriginal women and to resolve problems with the law enforcement system.
The UN Committee has indicated that Canada has one year to report on how it will boost social assistance rates and address the lack of progress on the files of missing and murdered women. A copy of the CEDAW Committee's Concluding Observations on Canada is available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-CAN-CO-7.pdf
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The First Nations Leadership Council is comprised of the political executives of the BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit, and the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.
The Council works together to politically represent the interests of First Nations in British Columbia and develop strategies and actions to bring about significant and substantive changes to government policy that will benefit all First Nations in British Columbia.
Missing native women gets UN attention
Need for inquiry cited by human rights body as missing and murdered aboriginal women numbers high enough to question law enforcement's effort
Paul J. Henderson, The Times
Published: Tuesday, December 02, 2008
A United Nations (UN) human rights body has called for an investigation into the 500-plus missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada, and local MP and Minister of Indian Affairs Chuck Strahl said he would address the issue.
In what is being called a rare step, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) called on Canada to set up an inquiry to look at the failure of law enforcement agencies to investigate properly, and to "take necessary steps to remedy the deficiencies in the system."
The UN CEDAW committee has asked Canada to respond to its recommendations within one year, and to recognize "the gravity of the documented disappearance and murders of 511 Aboriginal women and girls from communities across Canada."
In response to the CEDAW report issued Nov. 7, the B.C. First Nations Leadership Council and the National Assembly of First Nations called on the government to conduct a full public inquiry.
During a conference call with local media Thursday, Strahl said he had met with Beverly Jacobs, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, about the matter, and that he would work with her to address the situation.
"Whether that needs to be a formal inquiry on this or not, we've agreed to work with Ms. Jacobs and several other departments," he said.
When asked if the government would meet CEDAW's timeline, Strahl said he agreed to address the issues, but that he had just met with Jacobs Nov. 27 so it was too early to confirm.
And while he didn't suggest an inquiry was out of the question, Strahl did say that it wasn't something his department would undertake.
"I'm not going to launch an inquiry because it would have to come from the Justice Department," he said.
Local Sto:lo member Ernie Crey whose sister Dawn's remains were found at Robert Pickton's Coquitlam pig farm said he was happy to see B.C.'s top aboriginal leaders taking a stand on the need for an inquiry into the thousands of missing aboriginal women.
"Here in B.C. the disappearance of dozens of woman, many of them aboriginal, remains a mystery," Crey told the Times. "Once the Pickton case is wrapped up, there needs to be an inquiry into what happened on the Downtown Eastside (DTES) over the last two decades. How did so many women go missing from right under the noses of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD)? Even after the community raised the possibility that a serial killer might be stalking the DTES, the VPD scoffed at the idea. British Columbians want to know what went wrong and what can be done to make sure such a horrible thing never happens again in B.C."