The NDP Opposition’s Aboriginal Affairs critic says a new international report on missing and murdered Aboriginal women in British Columbia confirms what a number of groups have been saying all along.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report makes a number of findings including violence against Indigenous women is the result of societal systemic barriers and says the federal government should call a national inquiry into the issue.
The NDP’s Jean Crowder says the report reaffirms the feedback the party has been receiving on the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women for a number of years.
“The report reaffirms what we’ve been hearing from families and from First Nations, Inuit, Métis across the country about the challenges that women have been facing,” she says.
However, in spite of the report’s recommendation that the government call a national inquiry into the issue, Crowder says she is doubtful the Harper government will do so.
“I was on a panel with parliamentary secretary Susan Truppe and she just continued to reiterate, didn’t address the report at all, and continued to reiterate that lines that they’ve announced an action plan but did not deal with the fact that their action plan largely focuses on what happens once women and girls are murdered or have gone missing.”
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is part of the Organization of American States.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt recently said the government believes violence against Indigenous women is largely an on-reserve issue caused by First Nations men.