Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)

Nine things to know about the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women

What is this all about?

For decades, indigenous women in Canada have been disappearing and dying violently at alarming rates. An unprecedented RCMP report, released in 2014, found there were 1,181 police-reported cases of homicides and long-term disappearances involving indigenous women and girls between 1980 and 2012. Shortly after the RCMP report was published, 15-year-old Tina Fontaine’s body was pulled from a Winnipeg river – a high-profile homicide case that reignited calls for a national inquiry into the violence. Although the RCMP have emphasized a “strong nexus to family violence,” that is not the whole story. A Globe and Mail investigation determined that indigenous women are roughly seven times more likely to be slain by a serial killer than non-indigenous women. Advocates believe the RCMP figures underestimate the crisis because they do not include deaths unduly deemed not to be suspicious or disappearances that were never reported. Some believe the true number of killings and disappearances is closer to 4,000.

What are some of the underlying issues?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nine-things-to-know-about-the-national-inquiry-into-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women/article31654434/

 

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