A 2019 National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada found that “state actions and inaction rooted in colonialism and colonial ideologies” are behind the disappearance of at least 4,000 Indigenous women.
Approximately 1,500 families of victims and survivors provided testimonies on 30 years of ongoing murders and disappearances of Indigenous women, and the report concluded that it has amounted to a “Canadian Genocide” and a national crisis.
There are three categories of Indigenous peoples in Canada: the Inuit, Metis, and First Nations. They represent a total of 4.9% the population. Yet in 2018, Indigenous peoples made up 22% of homicide victims, and while Indigenous men saw a decrease, Indigenous women saw an increase for the second consecutive year.
Indigenous peoples, and more specifically women, continue to bear the brunt of deep-rooted colonialism. Between 1980 and 2012 alone, Indigenous women and girls represented 16% of all Canadian female homicides, even though they constitute only 4% of the female population. A 2014 Statistics Canada report further estimated that the homicide rate for Indigenous women was almost six times higher than for other women.
There is no clear profile for the perpetrators of these crimes, as Indigenous women have been victims of serial killers like Robert Pinkerton, who confessed to killing 49 women at his farm near Vancouver. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also found that some women who try to move off of reserves are often poor and work as sex workers, making them vulnerable to abuse by traffickers. Others are attacked by domestic partners or family members. 54% of Indigenous women have reported severe forms of family violence, which includes things like battery or having a gun or knife used against them.
What is clear that they are more vulnerable to attack due to a lack of protection. Some key indicators are the fact that Indigenous peoples in Canada face higher and harsher incarceration rates, higher rates of suicide, poverty, and lack of health care, which also contributes to high levels of alcoholism in First Nations and Inuit Communities. Accurate crime records are also scarce, as Canadian Law enforcement has a history of suppressing racial data collection and police officers do not have to collect information on the ethnicity of suspects.
MOVING FORWARD
Even as the report was still being finalised, the Canadian Government under Justin Trudeau was quick to act and have focused their efforts on prevention, ensuring the voices of Indigenous women are heard, strengthening justice, improving safety, security, oversight and awareness, policing, and family and community support.
The years that follow the report will determine how effective those recommendations and policies have been. However, it is important to recognise that major indigenous organisations across Canada want more from the government, given that the national action plan has no timeline.
CROSS-BORDER CRISIS
The crisis is not bound by the borders between Canada and the United States. Indigenous women in the U.S. face the same level of discrimination and violence.
Indigenous women in both the U.S. and Canada are disproportionately targeted by sex traffickers and are more likely to experience domestic or sexual abuse. In 2016 alone, there were 5,712 reported cases of missing and murdered indigenous women in the U.S., yet only 116 were logged in Department of Justice databases. On some reservations in the U.S., Indigenous women are murdered at rates that are up to 10 times higher than the national average.
Reservations are tracts of land managed by a Native American Tribe. There are approximately 310 Indian reservations in the U.S. and more than 550 federally recognised tribes. Reservations operate their own tribal justice systems and courts, however these have become destabilised by President Trump “imposing undue burdens and restrictions on tribal courts” that go beyond those “imposed on federal and state courts”. This means that non-Native abusers who do not adhere to tribal laws are able to appeal to a federal court, effectively sidestepping the tribal court process.
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
The Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) comprises 23 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. CEDAW provides reviews, recommendations and criticisms in order to support its objectives.
In 2007, the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted and has been supported and adopted by both the United States and Canada. The universal framework of the Declaration creates minimum standards for the “revival, dignity and well-being of indigenous people of the world”. Although it does not create new rights, the Declaration provides an interpretation of human rights protected by other international human rights instruments as they apply to the Indigenous population. But it is important to note that even though the Declaration establishes international legal norms and reflects a commitment by states to be progressive, it is not binding on its own, which means there is still work to be done safeguarding the rights of Indigenous women.
Angie is a final year law student at the University of East Anglia and has completed a year abroad at KU Leuven in Belgium. She is an aspiring Solicitor hoping to work in London with the aim of qualifying in another jurisdiction in the future. Her interests are largely international with particular focus on technology, financial crime, environmental and human rights law and how they overlap.