It’s time to act: National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

January 12, 2015

The Canadian Labour Congress is today reiterating its call for a National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has issued the report of its two-year study on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in British Columbia. The report clearly links the disproportionate amount of violence experienced by Indigenous women in Canada to the “past and present institutional and structural inequalities” that these women face, including poverty, discrimination and colonization. It points out that any response must be comprehensive and holistic, which means addressing poverty, lack of housing, and access to education and employment.

The report clearly reinforces calls for a National Inquiry as well as a comprehensive strategy that would include all levels of government, and involve indigenous peoples, particularly indigenous women, at all stages.

Hassan Yussuff, CLC President, said ” Every international human rights body that has investigated this crisis has called for action. The federal government’s failure to call a National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is a national embarrassment”.

Yussuff stated that he hopes the federal government will consider this new report and its recommendations seriously. A roundtable with First Nations, provinces, territories and Indigenous organizations is planned for February. “The roundtable will be the start of a conversation”, said Yussuff, “but it should just be the start. Indigenous women in Canada and their families deserve to be heard and they need to know their governments are prepared to work hard on a coordinated strategy to address poverty, marginalization, and violence”.

Read the report at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/reports/pdfs/Indigenous-Women-BC-Canada-en.pdf

NT5